Featuring
Angela Ellard, House Ways & Means Committee
Jason Kearns, House Ways and Means Committee
Everett Eissenstat, Senate Finance Committee
Jayme White, Senate Finance Committee
Moderator: Ken Levinson, Washington International Trade Association
Everett Eissenstat serves as the Chief International Trade Counsel to the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. His responsibilities include trade agreement implementation, monitoring and compliance, customs authorization, preferential trade arrangements, and sanctions policy. He also conducts oversight over U.S. government international trade policy and agencies, including international trade negotiations. Eissenstat served previously as Chief International Trade Counsel from 2001 to 2006. Before re-joining the Finance Committee, Everett served five years in the Office of the United States Trade Representative as the Assistant USTR for the Americas. In that capacity, Everett was the lead U.S. trade negotiator for the Americas, responsible for developing, coordinating, and administering U.S. trade policy in the region, including negotiating and implementing trade agreements, monitoring foreign government compliance with international commitments, and advocating on behalf of U.S. trade policy interests. Eissenstat has also served as the Legislative Director to Congressman Jim Kolbe and worked as an attorney in private practice in Dallas, Texas. Eissenstat received his juris doctorate cum laude from the University of Oklahoma, a M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.S. in Political Science and Spanish from Oklahoma State University. He was also the 2015 winner of WITA’s Lighthouse Award, awarded in recognition of the contributions the individual has made over the course of his/her career to trade policy, the understanding of global trade, and/or expanding the benefits of global trade.
Angela Ellard is the Ways & Means Committee Chief Trade Counsel and Trade Subcommittee Staff Director of the U.S. House of Representatives. She advises and represents Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Subcommittee Chairman Pat Tiberi (R-OH) on a variety of trade matters, including negotiation and implementation of all U.S. bilateral and regional free trade agreements since 1995, the operation of U.S. trade and customs laws, trade promotion authority, antidumping and countervailing duty issues, bilateral relationships with U.S. trading partners, preference programs for developing countries, and World Trade Organization negotiations, dispute settlement, and accessions. Before joining the Committee staff in 1995, Ms. Ellard was in private practice, specializing in international trade litigation and policy, including antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings and appeals on behalf of petitioners and respondents, other trade remedy proceedings, and bilateral and multilateral agreements. Ms. Ellard received her J.D. from Tulane Law School, cum laude, and she was an associate editor of the Tulane Law Review. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Public Policy from Tulane University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Newcomb College of Tulane University, summa cum laude. Ms. Ellard frequently speaks on trade litigation and policy and lectures at universities. She has been awarded the 2013 Award for Outstanding Performance by an International Lawyer in a Government or International Organization by the American Bar Association International Law Section. She has also received the 2011 Lighthouse Award from Washington International Trade Association and Washington International Trade Foundation, the 2009 Women of the Year by the Organization of Women in International Trade, and the 2005 Woman of the Year by the Trade Policy Forum.
Jason Kearns is Chief International Trade Counsel, House Committee on Ways and Means (Democratic Staff). In that position, he advises Members of Congress on legislation concerning international trade and on oversight issues involving the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and other agencies involved in international trade policy and regulation. Before beginning his current position in October 2006, he served for three years in the Office of the General Counsel to the U.S. Trade Representative. In that position he advised negotiators on issues that arose during bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations and represented the United States in several disputes in the World Trade Organization. From 2000 through 2003, Mr. Kearns worked in the international trade group of a major law firm. Mr. Kearns holds a Master in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a JD from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA from the University of Denver.
Jayme White serves as Chief Advisor for International Competitiveness and Innovation for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, serving as the top advisor on international trade to Democratic Senators on the Committee. In this position, White works to develop, and conduct oversight on the implementation of, U.S. trade objectives. In this position, White played an instrumental role in the development and enactment of Trade Promotion Authority, renewal and expansion of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, trade preferences to developing countries, and the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015. White has served in the Congress for nearly 17 years. Before coming to work in the Senate under the leadership of Senator Wyden, the Ranking Member of the Committee on Finance, White served in the House of Representatives for senior Ways and Means Committee Member, Representative Jim McDermott, as his Legislative Director. Before becoming a public servant on Capitol Hill, White worked in the private sector in Seattle, his hometown, where he operated a successful independent record company. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Georgetown University.