FEATURING:
Julia Neilson
Deputy Director, Trade and Agriculture Directorate
OECD
As Deputy Director of the OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate (TAD), Ms Nielson helps oversee work to develop and communicate evidence-based advice to governments with the aim of helping them improve the domestic and international performance of their policies in the areas of trade, food, agriculture and fisheries. Ms. Nielson has over 20 years experience in multilateral trade and development, strategy and management. She was previously Head of the Emerging Policy Issues Division in TAD, with responsibility for issues including digital trade, and the level playing field. Prior to that, she worked for the World Bank Group (WBG), including in the office of the then-President of the WBG, Bob Zoellick. Ms. Nielson began her international career in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, following which she joined the OECD Trade Directorate, working on trade in services. Ms Nielson left the OECD in 2005 to join the Trade Department of the WBG. Ms Nielson holds a Bachelor of Arts Hons (1st class) and a Masters in Foreign Affairs and Trade from the Australian National University.
Wendy Cutler
Vice President and Managing Director of Washington D.C. Office
Asia Society Policy Institute
Wendy Cutler joined the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) as vice president in November 2015. She also serves as the managing director of the Washington D.C. Office. In these roles, she focuses on building ASPI’s presence in Washington — strengthening its outreach as a think/do tank — and on leading initiatives that address challenges related to trade and investment, as well as women’s empowerment in Asia. She joined ASPI following an illustrious career of nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Most recently she served as Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, working on a range of U.S. trade negotiations and initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. In that capacity she was responsible for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, including the bilateral negotiations with Japan. She also was the chief negotiator to the U.S.-Korea (Korus) Free Trade Agreement. Cutler received her master’s degree from Georgetown.
Colin Bird
Director of Trade Negotiations (Multilateral and Americas)
Global Affairs Canada | Affaires mondiales Canada
Colin Bird is an Executive Director in the Trade Policy Branch at Global Affairs Canada. He is responsible for the coordination of trade negotiations in the Americas as well as multilateral trade matters, particularly Canada’s membership in the World Trade Organization. He also serves as Canada’s senior trade official for the OECD and G20. Until August 2019, Mr. Bird served as Minister-Counsellor for Trade and Economic Policy at the Canadian Embassy in Washington. In Washington, Mr. Bird was responsible for all aspects of the U.S.-Canada trade relationship and was a participant in each round of the recent renegotiation of NAFTA. Prior to his service in Washington, Mr. Bird was a divisional director in the Trade Negotiations Branch of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development in Ottawa (North America Bureau). He is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada and has practiced primarily in the area of international trade. Within government, he has served as counsel to the NAFTA Secretariat and in Canada’s Trade Law Bureau, where he focused on trade remedies, aerospace and softwood lumber trade issues. He has represented Canada before dispute settlement panels and the Appellate Body at the World Trade Organization in Geneva. Mr. Bird received his law degree from the University of Ottawa and his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.
Brody Sinclair
Trade & Economic Counsellor
Embassy of New Zealand
Brody Sinclair heads the Trade and Economic section at the
New Zealand Embassy in Washington DC. He arrived in June
2019 on a four-year assignment. During his more than ten years with the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Brody has had extensive experience in trade negotiations and trade-related issues. Most recently, he was New Zealand’s Deputy Senior Official for the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) process following the US withdrawal from TPP. He also had primary responsibility for goods issues across all of New Zealand’s completed free trade agreements. He previously served in Seoul as First Secretary (Trade and Economic) at time when the Korea-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement was concluded and entered into force. Prior to joining the Ministry, Brody had a career as a business and political journalist. Brody is a graduate of the University of Auckland where he gained a Master of Arts in history and a Bachelor of Science in statistics. In addition, he has a Diploma in Journalism from Massey University.
On March 26, G20 Leaders issued a statement that they should “work to ensure the flow of vital medical supplies, critical agricultural products, and other goods and services across borders, and work to resolve disruptions to the global supply chains, to support the health and well-being of all people.” The leaders also reiterated their “goal to realize a free, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent, predictable and stable trade and investment environment, and to keep our markets open,” and called on Trade Ministers to “assess the impact of the pandemic on trade.”
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