Speaker: Ambassador Alan Wolff, WTO Deputy Director-General

Introductory Remarks: Padideh Ala’i, WCL Professor of Law; Director of Program on Trade, Investment and Development (TID)

Moderator: John Magnus, WCL Adjunct Professor; President, TradeWins L.LC.

Ambassador Wolff began his four-year term as WTO Deputy Director-General on 1 October 2017. Formerly Senior Counsel at the global law firm Dentons, he is one of the world’s leading international trade lawyers. He has been engaged to resolve some of the largest international trade disputes on record. For the last six years, he has served as the Chairman of the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) which today represents hundreds of American companies who employ millions of workers. He is Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Trade and Commercial Diplomacy (ITCD).  

Ambassador Wolff served as United States Deputy Special Representative for Trade Negotiations in the Carter Administration, General Counsel of the Office in the Ford Administration, and Acting Head of the U.S. Delegation for the Tokyo Round. He was a senior trade negotiator in, and advisor, to both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Prior to his service at USTR, he served in the U.S. Treasury as staff attorney for the National Advisory Committee on International Monetary and Financial Policy, participating in the work of the OECD Development Assistance Committee, reviewing lending policies in the IMF and the World Bank, and participating in the drafting of the Articles of Agreement of the African Development Fund. He was director of the Treasury's Office of Multilateral Trade Negotiations.

He has lectured and written extensively on trade topics including the need for a strong, open rules-based multilateral trading system.  He holds a J.D. degree from Columbia University and an A.B. degree from Harvard College.