Held each summer, the WITA/WITF Annual Dinner is WITA’s signature event. The Dinner attracts hundreds of top decision makers, policy shapers, and trade experts from D.C. and around the world. It’s no wonder it’s come to be known as ‘Trade Prom’!

This event is considered “widely attended” under both House & Senate Gift Rules.

To learn more about past honorees at the WITA/WITF Annual Dinner, please click here. 

Event Details:

Registration & Cocktails 5:30 – 7:00 PM

Dinner & Awards 7:00 – 9:00 PM

Post Dinner Reception 9:00 – 11:00 PM

For more information on sponsorships, please click here. 

Questions? Contact WITA at (202) 312-1600 or events@wita.org

WITA has a one week cancellation policy for this event.

2025 Sponsors

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Featured Speakers:

Meredith Lilly, Professor & Simon Reisman Chair in International Economic Policy, Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University

Additional Speakers to be Announced…

Thank you to our USMCA Review Series Sponsors

The post Why USMCA Matters appeared first on WITA.

Date: Wednesday, May 28

Time: 5:00 – 7:30 PM ET

Location: Wilson Plaza, Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20004

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This off-the-record program will offer Korean, U.S. and global stakeholders a deeper understanding of U.S. trade law, political dynamics, and current and emerging trade issues. The program will feature former trade officials, congressional experts, and private sector leaders with deep expertise in U.S.-Korea trade and regulatory policy.

Registration for the Mini Intensive Trade Seminar is open to the public and all sessions are off-the-record/Chatham House Rules.

If you cannot attend every session in real time, a link to the recording was be sent to all registered attendees to watch on your time on a password protected site.

Program Agenda and Speakers

Tuesday, May 27, 6:30–7:15 PM ET / Wednesday, May 28, 7:30–8:15 AM KST

Session 1: Key U.S. Trade Dynamics – Understanding the Trump Trade Agenda 

Everett Eissenstat, Partner, Public Policy Practice Group, Squire Patton Boggs; former Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs and Deputy Director, National Economic Council; former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for the Americas, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; former Chief International Trade Counsel, United States Senate

Sally Laing, Partner, Akin; former Chief International Trade Counsel, Democratic Staff, U.S. Senate Committee on Finance; former Assistant General Counsel, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

Moderator: J. David Park, Partner, Arnold & Porter

Tuesday, May 27, 7:15 – 8:00 PM ET / Wednesday, May 28, 8:15–9:00 AM KST

Session 2: U.S.-Korea Trade Issues & Negotiations 

Wendy Cutler, Vice President, Asia Society Policy Institute; former Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, Office U.S. Trade Representative

Yeo Han-koo, Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics; former Trade Minister, Republic of Korea

Moderator: Tami Overby, Partner, DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group; former President of the U.S.-Korea Business Council, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Tuesday, May 27, 8:00–8:45 PM ET / Wednesday, May 28, 9:00–9:45 AM KST

Session 3: Key U.S. Trade Agencies, Players, and Roles 

Ryan Majerus, Partner, King & Spalding; former Acting Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, U.S. Department of Commerce – International Trade Administration; former Senior Policy Advisor for Supply Chains, National Economic Council, The White House

Greta M. Peisch, Partner, Wiley Rein LLP; former General Counsel, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; former Senior International Trade Counsel, U.S. Senate Committee on Finance

Moderator: Michael Smart, Managing Director, Rock Creek Global Advisors; former Director for International Trade and Investment, National Security Council, The White House; former Trade Counsel, Democratic Staff, U.S. Senate Committee on Finance

Tuesday, May 27, 8:45–9:30 PM ET / Wednesday, May 28, 9:45–10:30 AM KST

Session 4: Digital Trade & Digital Services Taxes (DSTs)

Jonathan McHale, Vice President, Digital Trade, Computer & Communications Industry Association; former Deputy Assistant USTR, ICT Services and Digital Trade, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

Yongwook Paik, Professor, Kaist College of Business

Tiffany Smith, Vice President, Global Trade Policy, National Foreign Trade Council; former Director for Market Access, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

Moderator: Haeyoon Kim, Founder and Publisher, Korea Tech & Trade Watch; former Nonresident Fellow, Korea Economic Institute of America; former Senior Researcher, Economic Section, Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Who Should Attend?

Korean government officials, business leaders, and trade professionals, along with all WITA members or non-members.

Thank you to our WITA Academy Sponsors

Thank you to our WITA International Sponsors

The post U.S.-Korea Intensive Trade Seminar appeared first on WITA.

As both nations navigate a complex global economic landscape marked by shifting geopolitical dynamics, emerging technologies, and new regulatory challenges, this event will offer a platform for thoughtful discussion and strategic insight. The program will feature a series of expert panels and a keynote discussion that will consider: 

• Potential pathways toward a comprehensive U.S.-U.K. trade agreement
• Strategies for advancing mutual economic interests in a post-Brexit, post-pandemic world
• Opportunities for transatlantic cooperation on economic security, trade standards, and supply chain resilience
• Tools available to policymakers and industry leaders to strengthen bilateral ties

This event will bring together a diverse group of thought leaders and practitioners from across government, industry, and academia, to explore the opportunities and assess the challenges that lie ahead. Participants will gain valuable insights into the role of trade in reinforcing shared values, promoting innovation, and responding to global economic disruptions.

A networking reception with a light lunch to follow.

Event Information

The post The Future of U.S.-U.K. Trade appeared first on WITA.

Registration for the Mini Intensive Trade Seminar was open to the public and all sessions are off-the-record/Chatham House Rules.

If you cannot attend every session in real time, a link to the recording will be sent to all registered attendees to watch on your time on a password protected site.

9:00–9:20 AM ET / 3:05–3:20 PM CET:

Discussion with Tomas Baert, Trade Advisor to Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission

9:20–10:10 AM ET / 3:20–4:10 PM CET:

Session 1: Geopolitical Turbulence, Trade, and Europe’s Global Role

 Ignacio Garcia Bercero, Non-resident fellow, Bruegel; former Director, Directorate for Trade at the European Commission

Shada Islam, Founder and Director, New Horizons Project Geopolitical; Non-Resident Fellow, Center for Global Development

Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, Director, European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE)

Moderator: Iana Dreyer, Founder and Editor, Borderlex

10:10–11:00 AM ET / 4:10–5:00 PM CET:

Session 2: Europe’s Economic Security Toolkit

Jacob Kirkegaard, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE); Senior Fellow, Bruegel

Peter Sandler, Director for Enforcement, Market Access, SMEs, Legal Affairs and Technology, European Commission

Nina Spieler, Associate, Global Regulatory, Hogan Lovells

Moderator: Georgia Tzifa, Counsel, WilmerHale

11:00–12:00 PM ET / 5:00–6:00 PM CET:

Session 3: EU’s Trade Negotiations, Agreements and Diversification Plans

Discussion with Sabine Weyand, Director-General, Trade and Economic Security, European Commission

David Henig, Director, UK Trade Policy Project, European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE)

Peter Bay Kirkegaard, Leading Senior Advisor, DI – Confederation of Danish Industries

Nicolas Köhler-Suzuki, Associate Researcher, Jacques Delors Institute

Moderator: Penny Naas, Lead GMF Allied Strategic Competitiveness, German Marshall Fund of the United States

Speakers Biographies

Tomas Baert, Trade Advisor to Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission

Tomas Baert is a member of cabinet of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s since September 2022. As the President’s trade advisor, he oversees the Commission’s work on trade policy, economic security, and international
competitiveness. His focus includes advancing the conclusion of key EU trade agreements — such as those with Mercosur, Mexico, and India — as well as managing the EU’s trade relations with major global partners, including the United States and China.

From 2018 to 2022, Tomas was based in Washington, DC as Head of Unit for Trade, Agriculture, and Digital Economy at the EU Delegation to the United States, where he managed transatlantic trade relations and helped launch the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council. Before his role in Washington, he headed the Trade Strategy unit at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade in Brussels, overseeing the EU’s Trade for All strategy.

Between 2014 to 2016, Tomas was an assistant to the Director-General for Trade, advising on multilateral and EU-U.S. trade negotiations (TTIP). He was based in Geneva from 2010 through 2014 to represent the EU at the WTO, where he coordinated the EU’s participation to the WTO’s 9th Ministerial Conference in Bali. He joined the Commission in 2005 as a negotiator on services trade and investment in DG Trade, working on trade agreements with India, Korea, and Ukraine and, in 2009, led the coordination of the EU’s new investment policy as the Union gained exclusive competence on foreign direct investment.

Tomas holds an MSc from the London School of Economics (LSE) and an MA from the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL). He spent a term at the Graduate Institute in Geneva and completed Harvard Kennedy School’s Mastering Trade Policy program.

Iana Dreyer, Founder and Editor, Borderlex

Iana is the founder and editor of Borderlex. She launched Borderlex in 2014 and remains its driving force. Iana has deep international trade policy expertise spanning over fifteen years.

Iana steers Borderlex’s editorial activities and particularly likes to write about the politics shaping EU trade policy, systemic issues at the World Trade Organization, international trade disputes, the nexus between security and trade and EU-Asian trade relations.

Before launching her publishing activity in London, Iana worked as policy analyst in think tanks with a focus on international trade and international energy policy, consulting on occasion for governments. Iana has worked with the European Centre for International Political Economy, the Institute Montaigne and the EU Institute for Security Studies. Iana has also worked for the Financial Times group and trained in journalism. Iana has post-graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and Sciences Po in Paris.

Ignacio García Bercero, Non-resident Fellow, Bruegel

Ignacio García Bercero is a Non-Resident Fellow at Bruegel. 

Active at the European Commission since 1987, he participated in the Uruguay Round negotiations and was subsequently posted in the EU Delegation to the United Nations in New York. Upon his return to Brussels he worked in the preparation of what eventually became the Doha Development agenda and was head of unit for legal affairs and WTO dispute settlement. 

From 2005 until 2011 he was Director responsible for the areas of Sustainable Development, Bilateral Trade Relations (South Asia, South-East Asia, Korea, Russia and ex-CIS countries, EuroMed and the Middle East). He was also the Chief Negotiator for the EU-Korea and EU-India Free Trade Agreements. From 2012 he was responsible for overseeing EU activities in the field of Neighbouring countries, US and Canada and was Chief negotiator for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

Mr García Bercero has written several papers and publications on WTO matters, including WTO reform, Dispute Settlement, Competition Policy and Regulatory Cooperation

In 2020 he completed a Fellowship at Saint Anthony’s College Oxford where his research focused on WTO reform. Since 2021 he is Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Science of the University College London and Visiting Senior Fellow at LSE Ideas, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Mr García Bercero holds a Law Degree from the Law Faculty of Universidad Complutense, Madrid and a Master of Laws Degree (with Distinction) from University College, London.

David Henig, Director, UK Trade Policy Project, European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE)

David Henig is the Director of the UK Trade Policy Project. A leading authority on the development of UK Trade Policy post Brexit, he places this in the context of developments in EU and global trade policy on which he also researches and writes.

David joined ECIPE in 2018 having worked on trade and investment issues for the UK Government for a number of years, in particular engaging extensively on US-EU talks around the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, on global issues around the US and China, and latterly helping to establish a UK trade policy capability after the 2016 Brexit referendum. He also writes a regular column for the online trade policy professionals news service Borderlex, advises a Parliamentary committee and the UK Trade and Business Commission, and appears regularly in media and at events to discuss latest developments. During the most intense phases of Brexit, he established with a number of other UK specialists a network of expertise under the UK Trade Forum banner.

Prior to working in Government, David worked in consulting and business development, having graduated from Oxford University. Collectively all of this experience is brought together in the project examining and evaluating the UK’s performance in preparing for and delivering effective trade policy.

Shada Islam, Founder and Director, New Horizons Project

Shada Islam is the founder and Director of New Horizons Project. She is a renowned and respected Brussels-based commentator on European Union affairs who now works independently as an advisor/analyst on Europe, Africa, Asia, geopolitics, trade, and inclusion.

Islam worked for nine years as Director of Europe and Geopolitics at Friends of Europe, an influential independent think tank based in Brussels.

She has spent most of her professional life researching, writing and speaking about the European Union’s relations with Africa, Asia and EU Development Policy, building up a global reputation  as a leading commentator, analyst and writer as well as a fresh and original thought-leader on EU relations with emerging nations.

At Friends of Europe, Islam started and expanded the Asia Programme and was a key driver of the organisation’s Development Policy Forum which brings together leading European and international development agencies.

She played a crucial role in discussions on Africa, including within the High Level Group of European and African Personalities co-organised by FoE with the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and the One Campaign.

Last year, she was selected as one of the 20 most influential women in Brussels by the magazine Politico. She is also a Solvay Fellow at the Vrije University Brussel (VUB).

As a correspondent for over 20 years for several Asian and African leading media outlets including “The Far Eastern Economic Review”, West Africa Magazine and the BBC African Service, Islam has acquired an in-depth knowledge and unique insights into the policies and priorities of governments, business and civil society actors in Europe, Africa and Asia.

As such, her opinions and advice are much sought-after by African, Asian and European governments, including the European Union institutions and the European External Action Service as well as business, civil society and academia.

She is a regular speaker at international conferences and is a frequent lecturer at academic symposia in Africa, Asia and Europe and is often interviewed by international media.

Islam joined Friends of Europe in February 2011, working there until June 9, 2020. While at FoE, she organised several high-level conferences and seminars on development policy, Africa and Asia.

Earlier, after working as a senior journalist and commentator, Islam joined the European Policy Centre think tank in Brussels in 2007. She has a Masters Degree in Journalism and Social Communication from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

Peter Bay Kirkegaard, Senior Adviser, Confederation of Danish Industry (DI)

Mr. Peter Bay Kirkegaard is Senior Adviser on trade policy at the Confederation of Danish Industry, where he has been employed since 2008.

The Confederation of Danish Industry is the largest business organization in Denmark with around 10.000 companies that are direct members of the organization.

Mr. Kirkegaard holds masters in Political Science, University of Aarhus, Denmark, 2001. Prior to working for the Confederation of Danish Industry, he has worked at the Danish Commerce and Companies Agency, as well as for the World Bank and the regulatory reform consultancy company, Jacobs, Cordova and Associates

Jacob Kirkegaard, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE); Senior Fellow, Bruegel

Jacob Funk Kirkegaard has been nonresident senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) since September 2020 and resident senior fellow with Bruegel since September 2024. He was a resident senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) in the GMF’s Brussels office from September 2020 to August 2024. He has been associated with the Institute since 2002 and had been resident senior fellow from 2013 to 2020.

Before joining the Institute, he worked with the Danish Ministry of Defense, the United Nations in Iraq, and in the private financial sector. He is a graduate of the Danish Army’s Special School of Intelligence and Linguistics with the rank of first lieutenant; the University of Aarhus in Aarhus, Denmark; the Columbia University in New York; and received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. He is coeditor of Transatlantic Economic Challenges in an Era of Growing Multipolarity (2012), author of The Accelerating Decline in America’s High-Skilled Workforce: Implications for Immigration Policy (2007), coauthor of US Pension Reform: Lessons from Other Countries (2009) and Transforming the European Economy (2004), and assisted with Accelerating the Globalization of America: The Role for Information Technology (2006). His current research focuses on European economies and reform, immigration, foreign direct investment trends and estimations, pension systems, demographics, offshoring, and the impact of information technology.

Nicolas Köhler-Suzuki, Associate Researcher, Jacques Delors Institute

Nicolas is an Associate Researcher at the Jacques Delors Institute. He is an experienced policy advisor on international trade and the principal of International Trade Intelligence. He has worked with international organisations and national governments and provided expertise on the negotiation and implementation of multilateral and regional trade agreements.

Prior to his advisory work, Nicolas was a doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge with a focus on Indian trade agreements. He holds an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge and studied politics, economics, and law at the University of Münster, Germany, and McGill University, Canada. Nicolas has worked on trade and development at the United Nations in Geneva, at the European Commission in Brussels, at the German Bundestag in Berlin, and at the German Corporation for International Cooperation in Lilongwe.

Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, Director, European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE)

Hosuk Lee-Makiyama is the director of European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE) and a leading author on trade diplomacy, EU-Far East relations and the digital economy.

He is regularly consulted by governments and international organisations on a range of issues, from trade negotiations to economic reforms. He appears regularly in European, Chinese and US media, and is noted for his involvement in WTO and major free trade agreements. He was also named “One of the 20 most influential people for open internet” by the readers of the Guardian UK in 2012. He was the first author to argue for a WTO case on internet censorship in China.

Prior to joining ECIPE, he was an independent counsel on regulatory affairs, competition and communication, Senior Advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, representative of Sweden and the EU member states towards the WTO and the UN, including WIPO and UNECE. Lee-Makiyama is also a Fellow at the department International Relations at the London School of Economics, and currently shares his time between LSE and ECIPE.

Penny Naas, Lead, GMF Allied Strategic Competitiveness, German Marshall Fund of the United States

Penelope (Penny) Naas is Lead at GMF Allied Strategic Competitiveness. She is a global public policy leader who designs strategies on international economic issues that sit at the nexus of geopolitics, trade, and climate. She is an adviser for TradeExperettes, a global organization of women trade experts.

Naas has created innovative strategies and solutions for Citigroup and, more recently, for UPS as its president for international public affairs and global sustainability. She opened and was managing director of Citigroup’s first government affairs office in Brussels between 2007 and 2012 before leading UPS’s international team from 2012 to 2019. She started her career at the US Department of Commerce, where she worked for 13 years on international economic issues and advancing the commercial interests of US companies in Europe.

Naas holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is on several boards and has co-chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Trade and Investment.

Peter Sandler, Director for Enforcement, Market Access, SMEs, Legal Affairs and Technology, European Commission

Peter works is a Director for Enforcement at the European Commission’s Trade Department, focused for the last three years on economic security, enforcement and legal affairs. That work includes export controls, trade sanctions and inbound and outbound investment.

He has spent most of his career “building” Europe from the inside, having graduated as a lawyer from Bristol University in the UK and the College of Europe in Bruges. He joined the Commission in 1992. He has worked on various economic reform themes during his career from openning up Europe’s telecoms markets in the 90s to being a Commission spokesperson for the information society and business in the Prodi Commission, He was policy assistant to the Commission’s Secretary General. He joined DG Trade in 2008, and prior to his current role was Director for Policy Coordination, Inter-institutional relations, Communications and Resources.

Nina Spieler, Associate, Global Regulatory, Hogan Lovells

Nina is an Associate at Hogan Lovells where she advises companies, governments, and trade associations on international trade, EU law and investment rules, specializing in EU law and environmental law. She provides guidance on all aspects of export controls, subsidies, sanctions, customs, product standards and trade policy, particularly in relation to EU market access.

Nina assists clients in navigating all aspects of EU trade controls and trade defense, including anti-subsidy (FSR), anti-dumping and safeguard measures. She represents clients in investigations and defense proceedings, including before the European Commission and EU and Member States Courts. Nina has extensive experience advising on export controls, including securing licenses, conducting investigations, coordinating with customs authorities and developing compliance. She regularly provides guidance to clients on complex Russia sanctions issues.

In addition to trade defense and export controls, Nina assists clients with supply chain due diligence and reporting requirements and forced labor regulations, and the compliance of EU trade measures with EU treaties and WTO rules.

Her industry expertise spans sectors including automotive, pharmaceuticals, food, medical devices, aviation, and financial services.

Her experience includes advising governments and municipalities on free trade agreements, climate change adaptation policies and multilateral environmental agreements. She has participated in UN negotiations, providing legal advice on international law and negotiation proposals.

Nina holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School and is fluent in German, French, and English.

Georgia Tzifa, Counsel, WilmerHale

Georgia Tzifa is a Counsel at WilmerHale where she specializes in EU competition and regulatory law. Her practice also covers international trade law and EU litigation. 

Ms. Tzifa represents clients in complex merger proceedings before the European Commission and advises in global cartel investigations (adverse and settlement procedures). Her practice covers a broad range of industry sectors, including automotive, aviation, electronics, energy and maritime. She has also represented corporate and institutional clients before the European Court of Justice in a variety of cases (inter alia in areas, such as banking law, State aid and institutional law). 

Ms. Tzifa regularly advises on international trade law, including import and export restrictions, special customs regimes and tariff measures. Her practice also covers the application of restrictive measures and sanctions, as well as conflict of laws issues stemming from blocking legislation. 

Before joining WilmerHale, Ms. Tzifa completed a Blue Book traineeship in a cartels unit of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition. Prior to that, she worked as an associate at a leading Greek law firm specializing in competition law, public procurement and commercial litigation, as well as a research assistant in the fields of European and comparative constitutional law at the University of Athens.

Ms. Tzifa publishes regularly on various EU law topics and is a member of the Board of Editors of Nomiko Vima, the law journal of the Athens Bar Association.

Sabine Weyand, Director-General, Trade and Economic Security, European Commission

Sabine Weyand is Director-General for Trade for the European Commission.

She was Deputy Chief Negotiator of the Commission Task Force for the Preparation and Conduct of the Negotiations with the United Kingdom under Article 50 of the TEU from October 2016 to May 2019.

She joined the European Commission in 1994 where she worked on industry and trade issues before serving in the Cabinets of Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and Commission President Barroso and heading the private office of Development Commissioner Louis Michel.

She then became Director in the Secretariat-General of the Commission in charge of policy coordination on economic, social and environmental policies before joining DG Trade in 2016 as Deputy Director-General, covering multilateral trade policy, trade relations with North America and European neighbourhood countries as well as trade defence.

She holds an M.A. degree in political science and economics from Freiburg University (DE), a Master’s degree from the College of Europe and a Ph.D. from Tübingen University (DE).

Prices and Registration: 

WITA Member: $50

Non-WITA Member: $100

Free for Embassy, Ministry, and Government Officials from All Countries

(Must register with official government email)

Free for Full Time Students (Must register with university email)

For group rates (3 or more ticket purchases), email Diego Añez (danez@wita.org) to receive a special rate.

Thanks to the generous support of our WITA Academy sponsors, we are pleased to announce that registration for the upcoming Intensive Trade Seminar will be free for U.S. government officials, state officials and free for full-time students.

In addition, embassy and ministry officials from foreign governments may attend for free thanks to the support of our WITA International sponsors.

Who Should Attend?

• International trade professionals and policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels seeking to understand the EU’s economic security strategies and their impact on transatlantic relations.
• Corporate leaders and industry experts in key sectors like technology, manufacturing, energy, and agriculture navigating the challenges and opportunities presented by EU trade policies and regulations.
• Embassy and ministry officials from around the world covering EU trade or member-state policies, aiming to deepen their understanding of Brussels’ policymaking ecosystem and its global implications.
• Law firms and legal professionals advising clients on international trade, export controls, FDI screening, and compliance with EU regulations.
• Multinational corporations and trade teams managing transatlantic operations or supply chains impacted by the EU’s industrial and trade policies.
• Chambers of commerce, trade associations, and industry groups representing businesses affected by EU economic security policies and promoting international trade cooperation.
• Academics, researchers, and students in trade policy, international relations, law, or economics eager to understand how the EU formulates trade policy and its global impacts.

Why Attend?

• Understand the EU’s trade policy ecosystem, including its unique legislative and institutional processes.
• Learn about the latest EU regulatory developments and how they impact U.S. stakeholders and allies. 
• Discover opportunities for collaboration and innovation between the U.S. and EU in areas like technology, supply chains, and trade diplomacy.

About Intensive Trade Seminar

For more than a decade, WITA’s Intensive Trade Seminar (ITS) has been a cornerstone program, educating government officials, private sector professionals, and the public on how to navigate the Washington and international trade policy landscape.

ITS sessions cater to a diverse audience, including policymakers, trade professionals, corporate leaders, legal advisors, and students, providing practical knowledge of trade policy mechanics and fostering connections within the trade community.

In addition to the flagship program on American trade policy making, WITA offers ITS sessions on hot-button issues and specific trade topics, delivering in-depth education that supports a deeper understanding of trade policy.

About Borderlex

Borderlex is the go-to resource for news, analysis, commentary, insights, in-depth technical analysis on trade policy and free trade negotiations in Europe.

Their main focus is European Union trade policy in Europe, Britain’s post-Brexit trade policy and key World Trade Organization developments. They are the only comprehensive news outfit on trade policy based in the EU.

Borderlex was born as a blog in May 2014 and turned into a professional news site in 2016. Since then it has established a firm reputation for providing reliable news, and solid, predictive, and critical analysis on European trade and investment policy.

Thank you to our WITA International Partner 

Thank you to our WITA Academy Sponsors

Thank you to our WITA International Sponsors

The post Mini Intensive Trade Seminar: European Trade Update: Security, Strategy, and Global Engagement appeared first on WITA.

Even as the Trump Administration imposes tariff hikes on Chinese imports, the prospect of negotiating a new trade agreement, a so-called Phase Two deal, remains on the table. But how realistic is this possibility? What key elements would the United States need to include to make such a deal meaningful? What concessions would China demand in return? And what lessons can we draw from the Phase One negotiations and its implementation to guide this effort? 

Featured Speakers:

Christopher Adams, Senior Advisor, Covington & Burling LLP

Craig Allen, Senior Counselor, The Cohen Group; former President, US-China Business Council

Jeff Gerrish, Partner, Schagrin Associates; former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative for Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Industrial Competitiveness, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

Lingling Wei, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Moderator: Wendy Cutler, Vice President, Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI)

Hosted in partnership with the Asia Society Policy Institute.

The post Phase 2: The Art of the Deal with China appeared first on WITA.

Prices and Registration:

WITA Member: $100

Non-WITA Member: $200

Free for Embassy, Ministry, and Government Officials from All Countries

(Must register with official government email)

Free for Full Time Students (Must register with university email)

For group rates (3 or more ticket purchases), email Diego Añez (danez@wita.org) to receive a special rate.

Program Agenda and Speakers

9:00 – 9:45 AM ET – Session 1: Unpacking the April Tariff Announcements

Ryan Majerus, Partner, King & Spalding; former Acting Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, U.S. Department of Commerce – International Trade Administration

Warren Payne, Senior Advisor, Mayer Brown; former Economic Advisor, U.S. International Trade Commission

Moderator: Nicole Bivens Collinson, Managing Principal, Operating Committee, International Trade & Government Relations Practice Leader, Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A.

9:45 – 10:30 AM ET – Session 2: Legal Framework: Trade Law and the Trump Tariffs

Kathleen Claussen, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center; former Associate General Counsel, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

Nasim Fussell, Senior Vice President, LotSixteen; former Chief Trade Counsel, U.S. Senate Finance Committee

Tim Meyer, Richard Allen/Cravath Distinguished Professor in International Business Law; Co-Director, Center for International and Comparative Law, Duke University School of Law

Moderator: Michael Smart, Managing Director, Rock Creek Global Advisors; former Director for International Trade and Investment, National Security Council, The White House

10:30 – 11:15 AM ET – Session 3: The Case for Tariffs: Economic and Policy Considerations

Chad Bown, Reginald Jones Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics; former Chief Economist, U.S. Department of State

Oren Cass, Founder, Chief Economist, American Compass

Kelly Ann Shaw, Partner, Hogan Lovells; former Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs and Deputy Director, National Economic Council

Moderator: Peter Harrell, Non-Resident Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; former Senior Director for International Economics and Competitiveness, National Security Council at the White House

 11:15 – 12:15 PM ET – Session 4: Global Trade Reactions: Retaliation, Negotiations, and Trade War Risks

Jennifer Hillman, Co-Director, Institute of International Economic Law, Georgetown University Law Center; former Member, WTO Appellate Body; former Chair, U.S. International Trade Commission

Cecilia Malmström, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics; former European Commissioner for Trade

Nazak Nikakhtar, Partner, National Security Chair, Wiley Rein LLP; former Under Secretary of Industry and Security, U.S. Department of Commerce

Francisco Sanchez, Partner, Holland & Knight LLP; former Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, Department of Commerce

Moderator: Edward Alden, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations; Ross Distinguished Visiting Professor, Western Washington University

Additional Panelists May be Added!

Speaker Biographies

Edward Alden is senior fellow at the Council on Fore­­­ign Relations (CFR), specializing in U.S. economic competitiveness, trade, and immigration policy.

Alden recently served as the project director of a CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force, co-chaired by former Michigan Governor John Engler and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, which produced the report The Work Ahead: Machines, Skills, and U.S. Leadership in the Twenty-First Century. In 2011, he was the project co-director of the Independent Task Force that produced U.S. Trade and Investment Policy. In 2009, he was the project director of the Independent Task Force that produced U.S. Immigration Policy.

Alden’s previous book, Failure to Adjust: How Americans Got Left Behind in the Global Economy, focuses on the federal government’s failure to respond effectively to competitive challenges on issues such as trade, currency, worker retraining, education, and infrastructure. His earlier work, The Closing of the American Border: Terrorism, Immigration, and Security Since 9/11, was a finalist for the Lukas Book Prize, for narrative nonfiction in 2009. The jury called Alden’s book “a masterful job of comprehensive reporting, fair-minded analysis, and structurally sound argumentation.”

Alden was previously the Washington bureau chief for the Financial Times, and prior to that was the newspaper’s Canada bureau chief, based in Toronto. He worked as a reporter at the Vancouver Sun and was the managing editor of the newsletter Inside U.S. Trade, widely recognized as a leading source of reporting on U.S. trade policies. Alden has won several national and international awards for his reporting. He has made numerous TV and radio appearances as an analyst on political and economic issues, including on the BBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NPR, and PBS NewsHour. He is a columnist for Foreign Policy, and his work has been published in Foreign Affairs, Fortune, the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Toronto Globe and Mail, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.

Alden has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of British Columbia and a master’s degree in international relations from the University of California, Berkeley. He pursued doctoral studies before returning to a journalism career. Alden is the winner of numerous academic awards, including a Mellon fellowship in the humanities and a MacArthur Foundation graduate fellowship.

Nicole Bivens Collinson is a Managing Principal, Operating Committee, and International Trade and Government Relations Practice Leader with Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A. She is located in the Washington, D.C., office. Ms. Collinson is a commentator on trade matters on MSNBC, NPR, and BBC the producer of the Two Minutes in Trade podcast.

Ms. Collinson has nearly 40 years of experience in government, public affairs, and lobbying. She has drafted and guided the successful implementation of several pieces of key international trade legislation positively affecting the bottom line of many U.S. companies. Clients have saved millions of dollars through the successful drafting, guidance, and passage of legislation that reduces or eliminates duties — crafting creative measures to benefit clients such as blocking changes to the first sale doctrine, miscellaneous tariff bills, specific trade preference legislation, the Generalized System of Preferences, etc. Such a track record demonstrates her ability to effectively move your agenda forward.

Ms. Collinson has been very effective in assisting clients in finding options – through exclusion or other tariff mitigation strategies – to reduce duty liability for goods subject to section 301 or section 232 duties. In addition, she is a leader on the firm’s initiatives to address forced labor concerns via supply chain reviews, due diligence strategies, and proactive remediation to prevent the importation of any goods that may violate section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 for goods made with forced labor.

Ms. Collinson prepares countries, companies, and associations for negotiations with the United States on free trade agreements, trade and investment agreements, labor disputes, and preferential trade programs. She is well-known for her ability to foster dialogue among a diverse set of stakeholders to resolve complex issues in trade policy making and implementation. She also works directly with U.S. multinational corporations and associations, as well as foreign companies, associations, and government agencies, to clearly represent their positions in Washington. In doing so she analyzes and monitors cross-cutting trade issues, including labor, the environment, food safety, customs regulations, international development, and others, and helps build strong coalitions to advocate for change.

Further, her work representing clients before Congress has earned her a well-respected position among politicians involved in international and business affairs. She is a well-known international trade authority in Washington, regularly called upon by members of Congress and the administration to help explain complex trade programs. Her decades of work with the House Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security committees and the Senate Finance; Commerce, Science and Transportation; Foreign Relations; and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees has established deep and lasting relations with members of Congress and their staffs.

Prior to joining ST&R Ms. Collinson served as assistant chief negotiator for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, responsible for the negotiation of bilateral agreements with Latin America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, the Sub-Continent, and Africa. She also served as a country specialist in the International Trade Administration at the Department of Commerce, where she was responsible for the preparation of negotiations on specific topics between the U.S. and Latin America, Eastern Europe, China, and Hong Kong as well as the administration of complex textile agreements.

Ms. Collinson holds a master’s degree in international relations from The George Washington University and a triple bachelor’s degree in political science, European studies, and French from Georgetown College. She also studied at the Université de Caen in France. She is past chair of the Women in International Trade Charitable Trust, past president of Women in International Trade, an advisory board member of America’s TradePolicy.com, treasurer and board member of the Washington International Trade Association, and a member of the Washington International Trade Association Foundation and Women in Government Relations. She serves on the board of trustees for Georgetown College and is the past executive director for the U.S. Hosiery Manufacturers Coalition, the U.S. Apparel Industry Coalition, and the U.S. Sock Distributors Coalition. She is conversant in both French and Spanish.

Chad P. Bown is the Reginald Jones Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and former Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of State. Bown joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics as a senior fellow in April 2016 and has been the Reginald Jones Senior Fellow since March 2018. He was on leave for public service as chief economist for the US Department of State in the Biden-Harris administration from January 2024 until January 2025. His research examines the political economy of international trade policy, industrial policy, economic security, supply chains, and trade agreements. He is the host of Trade Talks, a podcast about the economics of international trade and policy that he co-created with Soumaya Keynes in 2017 and which they cohosted through 2021.

Bown previously served as senior economist for international trade and investment in the White House on President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2010 to 2011. He was also a lead economist at the World Bank, conducting research and advising developing country governments on international trade policy for seven years. Bown was a tenured professor of economics at Brandeis University, where he held a joint appointment in the Department of Economics and International Business School for 12 years. He has also spent a year in residence as a visiting scholar in economic research at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Secretariat in Geneva.

Bown is also currently a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in London and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Between 2011 and 2019 he codirected, with Petros C. Mavroidis of Columbia Law School, an annual program of scholars providing legal-economic assessments of WTO case law and jurisprudence that are published with Cambridge University Press. He currently serves on the editorial boards of a number of journals, including Economics & Politics, International Economics, Journal of International Economics, Journal of International Economic Law, Journal of International Trade Law and Policy, Journal of World Trade, Review of International Organizations, and World Trade Review.

His work has been published in journals such as American Economic Review, Journal of Economic Literature, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of International Economics, and Journal of Development Economics. Bown is author of the book Self-Enforcing Trade: Developing Countries and WTO Dispute Settlement (Brookings Institution Press, 2009), and coeditor, with Joost Pauwelyn, of The Law, Economics, and Politics of Retaliation in WTO Dispute Settlement (Cambridge University Press, 2010). His volume on the global economic crisis, The Great Recession and Import Protection: The Role of Temporary Trade Barriers (CEPR and World Bank, 2011), was built from a trade policy transparency project that he initiated at the World Bank in 2004. The project resulted in the freely available, internet-based Global Antidumping Database, which he managed through 2016 as part of the World Bank’s Temporary Trade Barriers Database.

Bown received a BA magna cum laude in economics and international relations from Bucknell University and a PhD in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Oren Cass is the founder and chief economist of American Compass and author of The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America (2018). He is a contributing opinion writer for the Financial Times and the New York Times.

From 2005 to 2015, Oren worked as a management consultant in Bain & Company’s Boston and Delhi offices. During this period, he also earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was elected vice president and treasurer of the Harvard Law Review and oversaw the journal’s budget and operations. While still in law school, Oren also became Domestic Policy Director for Governor Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, editing and producing the campaign’s “jobs book” and developing its domestic policy strategy, proposals, and research. He joined the Manhattan Institute as a senior fellow in 2015 and became a prolific scholar, publishing more than 15 reports for MI and editing its popular “Issues 2016” and “Issues 2020” series, testifying before seven congressional committees and speaking on dozens of college campuses. He founded American Compass at the start of 2020.

Professor Kathleen Claussen is a Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center and has served as arbitrator, counsel, expert, public servant, and teacher. Her expertise covers several topics of international law, especially trade, investment, international business and labor; dispute settlement and international dispute bodies; national security and cybersecurity law; and administrative law issues surrounding U.S. foreign relations and transnational agreements.

Her work has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, and the Virginia Law Review, among others, as well as in leading international law journals. One of her articles on international investment disputes, The International Claims Trade, was awarded the Smit-Lowenfeld Prize in International Arbitration. Professor Claussen is also the co-founder of SAILS: the Consortium for the Study and Analysis of International Law Scholarship. She is the editor (with Geraldo Vidigal) of The Sustainability Revolution in Trade Agreements, forthcoming with Oxford University Press. She also co-edits an open-access textbook on international trade law together with Julian Arato, Joseph Weiler, and Sungjoon Cho. Professor Claussen has also blogged at Lawfare, Just Security, the International Economic Law & Policy Blog, and Opinio Juris, and is regularly featured on or consulted as an expert for various media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Marketplace, Bloomberg, and the Financial Times.

Professor Claussen has served as an arbitrator, as counsel, or as counsel to the tribunal in more than a dozen international trade and investment cases. She has been named to three arbitration rosters to serve as panel chair or panel member in state-to-state disputes. She is also regularly called upon to testify as an expert before legislative and independent review boards. In 2021-2022, she co-authored a study commissioned by the Administrative Conference of the United States on alternative dispute resolution in federal agency programs.

Professor Claussen has served as a visiting faculty member or invited researcher at numerous institutions around the world, including Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, the University of Cambridge Lauterpacht Centre for International Law where she was a Brandon Fellow, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, the iCourts Center of Excellence at the University of Copenhagen, the George C. Marshall Center for Security Studies, the University of Zurich and Collegium Helveticum, and the World Trade Institute. Prior to joining the Georgetown faculty in 2023, she was a member of the faculty at the University of Miami School of Law for five years.

Professor Claussen holds several leadership positions within international law and arbitration professional associations. In 2021, she was appointed co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Economic Law. Her other recent governance appointments include the American Society of International Law (ASIL) International Economic Law Interest Group, the ASIL Executive Council & Executive Committee, and the Junior International Law Scholars Association. She is also a member of the Academic Council of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration and the Academic Forum on Investor-State Dispute settlement.

Before joining the academy, Professor Claussen was Associate General Counsel at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in the Executive Office of the President. There, she represented the United States in trade dispute proceedings and served as a legal advisor for the United States in international trade negotiations. She also worked on economic security issues on behalf of USTR at the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force. In 2020-2021, she was an invited member of the Biden-Harris Transition Team, covering trade, commerce, and development agencies.

Earlier in her career, Professor Claussen was Legal Counsel at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague where she advised on disputes between countries, and on investment and commercial arbitrations involving countries and international organizations. She also clerked for the Honorable David F. Hamilton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. At Yale, Professor Claussen served on the board of the Yale Law Journal and was Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Journal of International Law. She was awarded the Jerome Sayles Hess Fund Prize for excellence in international law and the Howard M. Holtzmann Fellowship in international dispute resolution.

Everett Eissenstat is a Partner in the Public Policy Practice Group. Everett is one of the nation’s foremost global trade experts having served in senior positions in Congress, the Office of the US Trade Representative, the White House and a Fortune 50 company. He helps clients manage and mitigate geopolitical risk, influence international economic policy-making, and develop and execute successful international trade and investment strategies.

During a distinguished government career spanning over two decades, Everett served as deputy assistant to the president for international economic affairs and deputy director of the National Economic Council. Reporting to the president, the national security advisor and the director of the National Economic Council, he coordinated interagency policy development and implementation on international economic policy matters. He served as the president’s personal representative and principal negotiator to the G7, G20 and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economic summits and led interagency preparations for all international summits.

Previously, Everett held key roles in the US House, Senate and the Office of the US Trade Representative. As the chief international trade counsel to the chairman of the US Senate Finance Committee (2011-2017 (under Sen. Orrin Hatch) and 2001-2006 (under Sen. Chuck Grassley)), Everett built and led professional international trade policy teams for two chairmen. He advised the chairmen on all international trade matters before the committee and coordinated the international trade work of the Finance Committee Republicans. His legislative responsibilities included Trade Promotion Authority, US Customs authorization, implementation of free trade agreements, preferential trade arrangements and sanctions policy. He was also responsible for the oversight of US government international trade agencies and international trade negotiations.

During his tenure as chief international trade counsel, Everett negotiated and helped gain congressional approval of the Trade Act of 2002 and the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015. He also gained approval of legislation implementing bilateral trade agreements with Australia, Chile, Colombia, Jordan, Morocco, Korea, Panama and Singapore, as well as the Dominican Republic-Central America-US-Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA).

As assistant US trade representative for the Americas (2006-2011), Everett led negotiations of comprehensive bilateral free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and Peru, as well as the entry into force of DR-CAFTA, a plurilateral trade agreement with Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, he led negotiation of the US-Brazil Framework Agreement, the US-Canada Government Procurement Agreement and the US-Uruguay Trade and Investment Framework Agreement.

Everett also served as legislative director for Rep. Jim Kolbe, where he advised the congressman on international trade matters, appropriations and foreign affairs. He also served as special assistant in the Office of the Western Hemisphere at the Office of the USTR. Everett also served as a member of the 2000 Presidential Transition Team for the Office of the US Trade Representative, the US Department of Commerce Office of Import Administration and the International Trade Commission.

Everett most recently served as chair of North America and global trade lead at a boutique global public relations consultancy firm. He was senior vice president at a multinational automotive manufacturer (2018-2021) reporting to the CEO and managing over 100 public policy professionals worldwide. He helped navigate a range of challenges, including labor relations, supply chain disruptions and the regulatory and compliance implications of transitioning from internal combustible engines to electric vehicles.

Nasim Fussell is a Senior Vice President at Lot Sixteen, where she leads the firm’s trade practice. On Capitol Hill, Nasim served as the Chief International Trade Counsel for the Senate Finance Committee under Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), spearheading the Committee’s work on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and all other trade matters. She also served as Deputy Chief International Trade Counsel to former Chairman and late Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT). Prior to her work in the Senate, Nasim served as Trade Counsel to the House Ways and Means Committee, where she worked for Chairmen Brady (R-TX), Ryan (R-WI), and Camp (R-MI) to advance trade negotiations with other countries as well as trade legislation, including Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), customs reauthorization, trade preference programs, and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB). Nasim has also worked in the private sector as a law firm partner, in-house with two multinational companies, and a trade association. She started her career at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Nasim is a member of the board of the Washington International Trade Association (WITA). She holds an LLM in International & Comparative Law from GW Law School, a JD from the University of Baltimore School of Law, and a BA in History from the University of Michigan.

Peter E. Harrell is a Non-Resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He also serves as an attorney advising companies and investors on international legal, regulatory, and geopolitical risks. As a member of Carnegie’s American Statecraft program, Harrell’s research focuses on issues of U.S. domestic economic competitiveness, trade policy, and the use of economic tools in U.S. foreign policy.

From January 2021 through 2022, Harrell served at the U.S. White House as Senior Director for International Economics, jointly appointed to the National Security Council and the National Economic Council. In that role, Harrell co-led President Biden’s E.O. 14017 supply chain resilience agenda; worked on the global digital, 5G, and telecommunications strategies; spearheaded negotiations with the European Union on the U.S.-E.U. Data Privacy Framework; served as the White House representative to the CFIUS committee; and worked on U.S. sanctions and export controls towards Russia is response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Immediately prior to joining the White House, Harrell served on the Biden-Harris Transition team from September 2020 to January 2021.

From 2015 to early 2021 Harrell was an attorney in private practice and served as Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security. In those roles he advised U.S. and multinational companies on sanctions compliance and a range of geopolitical risks, and also published widely on public policy. His articles and op-eds appeared in publications including the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Politico, and Lawfare, among other outlets. Harrell has testified in front of multiple congressional committees, including, most recently, the House Financial Services Committee in February 2023.

From 2012 to 2014, Harrell served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Counter Threat Finance and Sanctions in the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. From 2009 to 2012 he served on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, where he was instrumental in developing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s economic statecraft agenda.

Earlier in his career, Harrell served on President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and as a reporter for Congressional Quarterly in Washington, DC.

Harrell is a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University and holds a JD from the Yale Law School.

Jennifer A. Hillman is currently a professor of practice at the Georgetown University Law Center, teaching the lead courses in international business and international trade, while serving as a fellow of Georgetown’s Institute of International Economic Law (IIEL). She is also co-director of the Center for Inclusive Trade and Development and served as a panelist for the second dispute under the USMCA (updated NAFTA)–a dispute between the United States and Canada over the application of US safeguard measures to imports of solar panels. She recently published Legal Aspects of Brexit:Implications of the United Kingdom’s Decision to Withdraw from the European Union (IIEL 2017), drawn from a seminar she co-taught in the fall of 2016.She has also written extensively about international trade law and the WTO, including a 2017 IIEL Policy Brief on the WTO consistency of the Ryan-Brady “A Better Way” tax proposal, co-authoring the leading casebook on trade, International Trade Law, 3rd ed., Wolters Kluwer (2016), papers on recent WTO cases on sanitary and phytosanitary measures (World Trade Review) and “Changing Climate for Carbon Taxes” (GMFUS.org).

Hillman has had a distinguished career in public service, both nationally and internationally. She recently completed her term as one of seven members from around the world serving on the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Appellate Body. Prior to that, she served for nine years as a commissioner at the United States International Trade Commission (USITC), rendering decisions in more than six hundred investigations regarding injury to U.S. industries caused by imports that were dumped or subsidized, along with making numerous decisions in cases involving alleged patent or trademark infringement. Before her appointment to the USITC, Hillman served as general counsel at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), where she had previously been an ambassador and chief textiles negotiator. She also served as legislative director and counsel to U.S. Senator Terry Sanford of North Carolina.

Hillman formerly served as a partner in the law firm of Cassidy Levy Kent, a senior transatlantic fellow for the German Marshall Fund of the United States, as president of the Trade Policy Forum and on the selection panel for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation.She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of visitors at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.She is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and Duke University.

Ryan Majerus is a Partner in the International Trade Team of King & Spalding. His practice covers trade remedies, trade policy and negotiations, trade agreement enforcement, import compliance, supply chains, and government procurement. He has particular experience in the steel, aluminum, automotive, agricultural, and energy industries. He recently performed the functions of the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance at the U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration for over a year, serving as the decisionmaker for every AD/CVD duty imposed by the U.S. He also was the Senior Policy Advisor for Supply Chains at the White House National Economic Council under President Joe Biden, where he played a central role in U.S. industrial strategy.

Prior to his 4 years in political roles at Commerce and the White House, Ryan had a decade-long legal career in the federal government, serving as the Senior Counsel for Appellate And Supreme Court Litigation at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”); as Assistant General Counsel at the Office of the USTR under the first Trump Administration, where he litigated several disputes before the WTO involving U.S. trade remedies and government subsidies and was a lead on agriculture trade policy. He also was a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the DOJ, where he represented Commerce as lead counsel in dozens of trade remedies cases before the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and defended numerous agencies in government contracts and bid protest litigation before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and Federal Circuit. 

Cecilia Malmström, is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a former member of the European Commission and the European Parliament, joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics as nonresident senior fellow in June 2021. She is host of PIIE’s Trade Winds biweekly virtual event series. She is also a visiting professor at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg.

Malmström has devoted the better part of her career to global affairs and international relations and has extensive experience with multilateral leadership and cooperation. She served as European commissioner for trade from 2014 to 2019 and as European commissioner for home affairs from 2010 to 2014. She was first elected as a member of the European Parliament in 1999, serving until 2006, and was minister for EU affairs in the Swedish government from 2006 to 2010.

As European commissioner for trade, Malmström represented the European Union in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other international trade bodies. She was responsible for negotiating bilateral trade agreements with key countries, including agreements with Canada, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, Vietnam, and the four founding Mercosur countries.

Malmström holds a PhD in political science from the department of political science of the University of Gothenburg.

Timothy Meyer is a Richard Allen/Cravath Distinguished Professor in International Business Law at Duke University School of Law and is an expert in international law—with specialties in international trade, investment and environmental law—and U.S. foreign relations law. He is co-director of Duke Law’s Center for International and Comparative Law. Meyer also serves on the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law and is an elected member of the American Law Institute.

Meyer’s research examines the factors that influence the design, implementation, and evolution of international legal institutions, as well as the role of the constitutional separation of powers in U.S. foreign policymaking. Specific topics include the implementation of public policy exceptions in international trade agreements, the interaction of international and local rules on energy subsidies, the role of local governments in free trade agreements, and the creation of non-binding “soft law” obligations. Professor Meyer’s work has appeared in the Columbia Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the California Law Review, the Journal of Legal Analysis and the American and European Journals of International Law, among others. He is also the author (with Andrew T. Guzman) of GOLDILOCKS GLOBALISM, forthcoming from Oxford University Press, and the editor (with Harlan Grant Cohen) of INTERNATIONAL LAW AS BEHAVIOR, from Cambridge University Press.

Meyer is the author (with Todd N. Tucker) of The Green Steel Deal, a proposal for an international arrangement on decarbonizing the steel sector through a mix of domestic and international trade measures. He has testified before the U.S. Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and the Judiciary and has served both as counsel and as an expert in international arbitrations and in cases raising international and foreign relations law issues in U.S. courts. The European Union has also named Meyer to its list of possible chairpersons for arbitrations and trade and sustainable development disputes arising under its trade agreements.

Prior to joining the Duke Law faculty in 2022, Meyer was a professor of law and director of the International Legal Studies Program at Vanderbilt University Law School. He has also taught at the University of Georgia School of Law. Before entering the academy, he served as an attorney-adviser in the U.S. State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser and clerked for the Honorable Neil M. Gorsuch when Justice Gorsuch served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Meyer earned his B.A. and M.A. (History) from Stanford University and his J.D. and Ph.D. (Jurisprudence and Social Policy) from the University of California, Berkeley.

The Honorable Nazak Nikakhtar is Partner & Chair of National Security at Wiley Rein LLC. She brings over two decades of experience in international trade and national security to help clients succeed in the domestic and global marketplace. Through leadership roles in the U.S. government and private sector, Nazak has leveraged her valuable insights into the expansive range of U.S. and international laws, regulatory and policy processes, and federal agency resources to achieve clients’ business objectives.

From 2018 to 2021, with unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Nazak served as the Department of Commerce’s Assistant Secretary for Industry & Analysis at the International Trade Administration (ITA). Nazak also fulfilled the duties of the Under Secretary for Industry and Security at Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). In these roles, Nazak was the agency’s primary liaison with U.S. industry and trade associations, and she shaped major initiatives to strengthen U.S. industry competitiveness, promote innovation, and accelerate economic and job growth. As one of the key national security experts in the U.S. government, she developed and implemented innovative laws, regulations, and policies to safeguard strategically important technologies, strengthen the U.S. industrial base, and protect the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States. As the Department’s lead on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), she played a key role in shaping U.S. investment policy. As the head of the agency’s trade policy office, she advised the U.S. government on legal and economic issues impacting critical technologies, advanced manufacturing, financial services, e-commerce, data privacy, cybersecurity, critical minerals/rare earths, and energy competition. Finally, as the federal agency’s lead on supply chain assessments, Nazak spearheaded the United States’ first-ever whole-of-government initiative to evaluate and strengthen supply chains across all strategic sectors of the economy.

Warren S. Payne is a Senior Advisor at Mayer Brown. He joined Mayer Brown from the US House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, where he held several of staff leadership roles from 2007 to 2015, including serving as policy director.

As the Committee’s policy director Warren was responsible for developing policy in all areas within the Committee’s jurisdiction. Major legislation that Warren worked to enact into law includes the Tax Increase Prevention Act, the ABLE Act, the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act, two highway and infrastructure funding bills in 2012 and 2014, and free trade agreements with Colombia, Peru, Panama and South Korea. In addition, Warren was responsible for the development and introduction of the first detailed legislation since 1986 to comprehensively reform the US Tax Code with the introduction of the Tax Reform Act of 2014. Other major pieces of legislation developed by the Committee during Warren’s tenure as policy director include the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities Act of 2014 and the SGR Repeal and Provider Payment Modernization Act.

Warren served as a senior staffer to both the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. In his role as Policy Director, Warren was responsible for working with Subcommittee Staff Directors to develop and implement the Committee’s priorities and coordinated those efforts with House of Representative Leadership-serving as a key liaison with the Administration, the Senate as well as House Leadership. Originally, Warren served as one of the Committee’s primary economists focused on trade policy, where he crafted the economic analysis behind the recent trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, Peru, and South Korea.

Before joining the Ways and Means Committee, Warren served as an economic advisor and international trade analyst at the US International Trade Commission. He also consulted on international trade and tax issues at Economic Consulting Services.

Kelly Ann Shaw is a Partner at the global law firm Hogan Lovells, is recognized as one of the world’s leading international trade, global economics and national security experts. In her current role, she helps clients navigate the increasingly complex intersection of trade, supply chains and geopolitics. This includes forced labor (UFLPA), tariff and customs issues, WTO litigation, national security measures, investment restrictions, as well as arctic, energy and industrial policies, among others. She also co-leads Hogan Lovells’ Geopolitical Risk and National Security program.

Kelly Ann spent a decade in government service holding a number of high-profile and influential roles as a senior U.S. negotiator, litigator, diplomat and policy advisor. Most recently, she served as President Trump’s Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs in which she was one of the key architects of the Administration’s trade, investment, energy and national security policies. She was also the United States’ lead negotiator (“Sherpa”) for the G7, G20 and APEC, and a key negotiator of the U.S.-China Phase One Deal, among others.

Prior to the White House, she served as Trade Counsel to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee and Assistant General Counsel for USTR in Washington, DC and Geneva. Kelly Ann has represented the United States in more than 40 WTO disputes and served as a lead negotiator for major U.S. trade negotiations.

Kelly Ann has been named one of Washington DC’s “Most Influential People” by the Washingtonian Magazine three years in a row (2021-2023), a “Next Generation Partner” by Legal500 and recognized as one of The Best Lawyers in America. She has testified multiple times before the U.S. Congress and is a frequent media contributor for outlets around the world.

She also serves as an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School and was appointed by the United States to the USMCA Chapter 10 Dispute Settlement Panel Roster.

Michael J. Smart is a Managing Director at Rock Creek Global Advisors, where he focuses on international trade and investment policy, including market access and regulatory matters. He also advises multinational companies on sanctions, supply chain policy, and trade-related climate measures.

Mr. Smart previously served as Trade Counsel on the Democratic staff of the US Senate Committee on Finance. In that role, he advised Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and members of the committee on various trade matters, including World Trade Organization negotiations and dispute settlement, free trade agreements, agricultural trade, and the trade aspects of legislation to address climate change.

Before joining the Finance Committee, Mr. Smart was Director for International Trade and Investment on the staff of the National Security Council at the White House. Mr. Smart focused on the Doha Development Agenda, trade in financial services, free trade agreements, and bilateral investment treaties. He also served as the lead White House staff for cabinet-level dialogues with Brazil and India.

Mr. Smart was previously an associate at the law firm of Sidley Austin LLP, where his practice focused on international trade and investment policy and dispute resolution. He represented companies and governments in WTO, investment treaty, and NAFTA disputes. Earlier in his career, Mr. Smart was Legislative Director for former Congressman Earl Pomeroy (D-ND).

Mr. Smart has appeared on CNN International, BBC News, Bloomberg News, and Channel News Asia and has been quoted in publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Politico, and Financial Times.

Mr. Smart is a member of the Executive Circle of the Institute of International Economic Affairs at The George Washington University and a member of the Board of Directors of the Washington International Trade Association. Mr. Smart received his BA in International Affairs from The George Washington University (Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude) and his JD from Georgetown University Law Center (cum laude).

Francisco J. Sánchez is a partner in Holland & Knight’s Tampa and Washington, D.C., offices who focuses his practice on trade policy, regulation and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) process including mitigation measures. Mr. Sánchez has a long and distinguished career in the public and private sectors.

Mr. Sánchez served as the U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Trade until 2013, a role former President Barack Obama nominated him to in 2009. As Under Secretary, Mr. Sánchez led the International Trade Administration (ITA) in its efforts to improve the global business environment by helping U.S. businesses compete abroad. As one of the architects of President Obama’s National Export Initiative (NEI), with the goal of doubling U.S. exports by the end of 2014, Mr. Sánchez directed programs and policies that promote and protect the competitiveness of American businesses. Mr. Sanchez also oversaw the ITA’s role in the CFIUS.

During the Clinton Administration, Mr. Sánchez served as the assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Prior to the DOT role, he served in the White House as a special assistant to former President Bill Clinton, and chief of staff to the Special Envoy to the Americas.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Sánchez was the chairman and CEO of CNS Global Advisors, providing strategic advice to companies and governments looking to expand in or resolve issues in foreign markets, including the U.S. Mr. Sánchez also serves as an advisor to a private equity firm concentrating on investment opportunities in the Arctic.

Thank you to our WITA Academy Sponsors

Thank you to our WITA International

Sponsors

The post WITA Academy Mini Intensive Trade Seminar: U.S. Tariffs and Responses appeared first on WITA.

Panelists discussed the current trade landscape and future outlook of U.S. agricultural trade, including its place in relation to the overall U.S. economy, global markets, tariffs and trade barriers, and challenges faced by importers and exporters. 

Featured Speakers:

Jordan Dux, Senior Director of National Affairs, Nebraska Farm Bureau

Joseph Glauber, Research Fellow Emeritus, International Food Policy Research Institute

Virginia Houston, Director of Government Affairs, American Soybean Association

Tom Madrecki, Vice President, Supply Chain Resiliency, Consumer Brands Association

Moderator: Darci Vetter, Principal, Sower Strategies, LLC; former Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

This event was held in partnership with

The post Setting the Table on National Agriculture Trade Day appeared first on WITA.

Recent and potential actions taken by the United States, Canada and Mexico could upend North American supply chains, and have impacts on the North American economy that go beyond just the cost of the tariffs that may be imposed by the three countries.

WITA discussed the real world impacts of these actions on trade and commerce in North America.

Featured Speakers:

Shannon Fura, Page Fura, P.C., and Immediate Past Chair of the National Association of Foreign Trade Zones.

Turenna Ramírez, Partner Holland & Knight Mexico SC

Valerie Romero, Executive Vice President, Oremor Automotive Group (Ontario, CA); Chair, American International Automobile Dealers Association (AIADA)

Mark Shiring, CEO, Air Technology / Americas, ebm-papst Group

Laurie Tannous, Vice President Government Relations, Farrow; Chair, Canada US Business Association (CUSBA)

Moderator: Andrew Rudman, Senior Associate (non-resident), CSIS Latin America Program

Thank you to our USMCA Review Series Sponsors

The post Snapshot of the Border: The Cost of Tariffs and Non-Tariff Trade Frictions appeared first on WITA.