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Featuring
Special Guest: John Pomfret
Discussion led by: Shawn Donnan, Financial Times
Panel I Discussants: Melanie Hart, Center for American Progress
Clay Lowery, Rock Creek Global Advisors
Rob Scott, Economic Policy Institute
Moderator: Dorothy Dwoskin, Microsoft
Panel II Discussants:
Robert Atkinson, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Joseph Damond, Biotechnology Innovation Organization
Charles Johnson, Aluminum Association
Ambassador Darci Vetter, Immediate-past Chief Agricultural Negotiator for USTR
Moderator: Nova Daly, Wiley Rein
Panel 1: Macro-economic, trade and political issues
Melanie Hart is a senior fellow and director of China Policy at American Progress. She focuses on U.S. foreign policy toward China and works to identify new opportunities for bilateral cooperation, particularly on energy, climate change, and cross-border investment. Her research also covers China’s political system, market regulatory reforms, and how China’s domestic and foreign policy developments affect the United States.Hart has worked on China issues for more than a decade. Before joining American Progress, she worked as a project consultant for the Aspen Institute International Digital Economy Accords project. She also worked on Qualcomm’s China business development team, where she provided technology market and regulatory analysis to guide Qualcomm operations in Greater China. She has worked as a China adviser for The Scowcroft Group, Albright Stonebridge Group, and the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Hart currently serves on the board of the American Mandarin Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the professional development of current and future stewards of the U.S.-China relationship. She is also a charter member of the East Coast Advancement Committee of the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego, and a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. Hart has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, San Diego, and a B.A. from Texas A&M University. She studied Chinese at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing and has worked as a Chinese-English translator for Caijing Magazine.
Rob Scott joined the Economic Policy Institute in 1996. His areas of research include international economics, trade and manufacturing policies and their impacts on working people in the United States and other countries, the economic impacts of foreign investment, and the macroeconomic effects of trade and capital flows. He has published widely in academic journals and the popular press, including The Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, The International Review of Applied Economics, and The Stanford Law and Policy Review, as well as The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, USA Today, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Times, and other newspapers. He has also provided economic commentary for a range of electronic media, including NPR, CNN, Bloomberg, and the BBC.
Clay Lowery is a Managing Director at Rock Creek Global Advisors, an international economic policy advisory firm, where he focuses on international financial regulation, sovereign debt, macroeconomic policies, exchange rates, and investment policy. Mr. Lowery is currently advising multinational companies, financial institutions, and private equity firms on these matters. Mr. Lowery served as the Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the US Treasury Department from 2005 to 2009. In that role, he managed a 200-person team responsible for economic and financial diplomacy, monetary and banking issues, currency strategy, and trade and investment practices. He chaired the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the government committee that reviews international mergers and acquisitions that may affect national security interests. He was the point person on US policy toward Sovereign Wealth Funds; served as the Finance Deputy to the G20, G7, International Monetary Fund and the Financial Stability Forum; and was appointed by the President at various times to be the US representative to the Boards of the World Bank, African Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Inter-American Development Bank. During his fifteen years of US government service, Mr. Lowery held positions with Treasury – including Paris Club debt negotiator and the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Debt and Development Finance; the National Security Council – Director of International Finance; and the Millennium Challenge Corporation – Vice President of Markets and Sector Assessments. After his government service, Mr. Lowery was Vice President for International Government Affairs with Cisco Systems and Managing Director for the Glover Park Group. Mr. Lowery is a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development and serves as a Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He was an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University in international finance and a lecturer at the National War College. Mr. Lowery received his BA from the University of Virginia (Phi Beta Kappa) and his MSc at the London School of Economics. In 2009, he was awarded the Alexander Hamilton prize, the highest US Treasury Department honor.
Moderator: Dorothy Dwoskin, is the Senior Director of Global Trade Policy and Strategy at Microsoft, and a member of its Federal Government team in Washington D.C. She is responsible for leading the company’s policy efforts to promote open markets and fair trade in software and services, collaborating with government agencies, Congress, international organizations, and foreign governments. Dorothy previously served as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Multilateral Affairs at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). In that position she was responsible for trade negotiations and policy matters before the WTO, including the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations and the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations. She served as lead U.S. negotiator on a variety of trade policy issues, including the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), and led the negotiating teams setting the terms of membership for countries acceding to the WTO. She led teams resulting in successful bilateral WTO market access agreements with Russia and the Ukraine, and concluded membership negotiations for the accession of Vietnam and Saudi Arabia. Dorothy graduated cum laude from the School of International Service at American University. She was born and raised in Seattle, Washington.
Panel 2: Sectoral perspectives on U.S.-China Trade
Ambassador Darci L. Vetter serves as a strategic consultant for companies engaged in international trade of food and agriculture and as a Diplomat in Residence at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Ambassador Vetter served as Chief Agricultural Negotiator at International Dairy Foods Association since July 2014 until January 2017. From 2010 to 2014, she served as Deputy Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services and from 2007 to 2010, she was an International Trade Advisor on the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. Prior to working in the Senate, she held numerous roles at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, including Director for Agricultural Affairs from 2005 to 2007. Her experience in international trade and agriculture. She has been a Director of Neogen Corporation since October 5, 2017. She holds a B.A. from Drake University and M.P.A. and Certificate in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
As founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), recognized as the world’s top think tank for science and technology policy, Robert D. Atkinson leads a prolific team of policy analysts and fellows that is successfully shaping the debate and setting the agenda on a host of critical issues at the intersection of technological innovation and public policy. He is an internationally recognized scholar and a widely published author whom The New Republic has named one of the “three most important thinkers about innovation,” Washingtonian Magazine has called a “tech titan,” Government Technology Magazine has judged to be one of the 25 top “doers, dreamers and drivers of information technology,” and the Wharton Business School has awarded him the “Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award.” A sought-after speaker and valued adviser to policymakers around the world, Atkinson’s books include Big is Beautiful: Debunking the Mythology of Small Business (MIT Press, 2018); Innovation Economics: The Race for Global Advantage (Yale, 2012), and The Past And Future Of America’s Economy: Long Waves Of Innovation That Power Cycles Of Growth (Edward Elgar, 2005). He also has conducted groundbreaking research projects and authored hundreds of articles and reports on technology and innovation-related topics ranging from tax policy to advanced manufacturing, productivity, and global competitiveness. Atkinson is a member of the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age and serves on the boards or advisory councils of the Internet Education Foundation, the NetChoice Coalition, the University of Oregon’s Institute for Policy Research and Innovation, and the State Science and Technology Institute. Additionally, Atkinson is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Electronic Government and the Journal of Internet Policy; a member of the Global Innovation Forum Brain Trust; a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; a fellow at the Columbia University Institute of Tele-Information; and a fellow of Glocom, a Tokyo-based research institute. Atkinson was previously vice president of the Progressive Policy Institute, where he directed the Technology & New Economy Project. He wrote numerous research reports on technology and innovation policy, covering issues such as broadband telecommunications, e-commerce, e-government, privacy, copyright, R&D tax policy, offshoring, and innovation economics. Previously, Atkinson served as the first executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council (RIEPC), a public-private partnership whose members included the state’s governor, legislative leaders, and both corporate and labor leaders. As head of RIEPC, Atkinson was responsible for drafting a comprehensive economic development strategy for the state and working with the legislature and executive branch of government to successfully implement each element of a 10-point action agenda. Prior to his service in Rhode Island, Atkinson was a project director at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, where, among other projects, he spearheaded The Technological Reshaping of Metropolitan America, a seminal report examining the impact of the information technology revolution on America’s urban areas. As a respected policy expert and commentator, Atkinson has testified numerous times before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and he appears frequently on news and public affairs programs. Among others, these appearances have included interviews on BBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NPR, and NBC Nightly News. Atkinson holds a Ph.D. in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he was awarded the prestigious Joseph E. Pogue Fellowship. He earned his master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Oregon, which named him a distinguished alumnus in 2014.
Mr. Joseph Damond is Executive Vice President for International Affairs at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and is responsible for developing and implementing the industry association’s program of international advocacy and outreach, including the areas of trade policy and foreign government relations. Prior to taking his position at BIO, Mr. Damond was Vice President for International Government Relations in Pfizer’s Washington Office from 2006-2011. In that capacity he was responsible for managing and coordinating Pfizer’s international trade issues with the Administration and Congress. Prior to his appointment at Pfizer in 2006, Mr. Damond was with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) for five years. As PhRMA’s Deputy Vice President for International Affairs, he was responsible for managing PhRMA’s programs with respect to market access barriers that affect the research-based pharmaceutical industry, as well as managing PhRMA’s Asia and Japan programs. Before coming to PhRMA, Mr. Damond spent 12 years as a trade negotiator at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, where his last assignment, from 1999-2001, was as Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Asia and Pacific/APEC Affairs. During this time, he was also chief negotiator of the historic U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade agreement, completed in July 2000. Prior to his time at USTR, Mr. Damond also spent four years at the U.S. Commerce Department, working on bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations. Mr. Damond received his Master’s degree from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1985, and his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service, in 1983.
Charles Johnson has served most recently as the Vice-President of Policy for The Aluminum Association, acting as strategic advisor to the industry and advancing the aluminum industry’s interests in Washington DC and abroad. His responsibilities have included federal affairs, environmental regulation, occupational health and safety, community and consumer protection, international regulation, and sustainability. His career with the Aluminum Industry has spanned 18 years and during that time Mr. Johnson has represented the industry at the WHO/FAO, in diverse standards setting forums, and in international corporate stewardship deliberations. Mr. Johnson holds a B.A. from the University of Mississippi and an M.A. in international environmental policy from The American University.
Nova Daly, Senior Public Policy Advisor at Willy Reinn LLP, an experienced international investment and trade policy professional, has held senior leadership positions at the U.S. Departments of the Treasury and Commerce, the White House, and the U.S. Senate. Drawing on his experience in the management, development, and implementation of the U.S. economic and national security policies and programs, he provides both high-level insight and deep operational experience to help clients navigate the policy and regulatory environment surrounding cross-border business activities, especially through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).