Alan Wm. Wolff

Alan Wm. Wolff
AlanWmWolff.jpg AlanWmWolff.jpg
Born
🏳️ Nationality	American
🏳️ Citizenship	American
🏫 Education	Juris Doctor
🎓 Alma mater	Columbia Law School, Harvard College
💼 Occupation	Trade Diplomat, International Trade Lawyer, Former Deputy Director-General of the WTO
👩 Spouse(s)	Rev. Hélène N. Wolff

Alan Wm. Wolff (born June 12, 1942) is an American trade diplomat and prominent international trade lawyer.. He represented the United States and U.S. commercial interests in international negotiations over a period of five decades until his appointment as Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2017. For the six years prior to his appointment, he served as the Chairman of the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), which supports open international trade and represents hundreds of American companies who employ millions of workers.

Education

He holds a J.D. degree from Columbia University and an A.B. degree from Harvard College.

Career

Alan Wolff served as United States Deputy Special Representative for Trade Negotiations in the Carter Administration, having served as General Counsel of that Office in the Ford Administration. He was for a period acting Head of the U.S. Delegation during the Tokyo Round, and a principal draftsman of the basic U.S. law creating a mandate from Congress for trade negotiations and trade authorities delegated to the President. As Deputy USTR he was a founder of the OECD Steel Committee and its first chairman. He has served as a senior trade negotiator in, and advisor to, both Republican and Democratic administrations.

After leaving U.S. government service, he founded an innovative international trade practice fully integrating professional economists, forensic investigators of facts with skilled international trade lawyers. He served as counsel to the Labor-Industry Coalition for International Trade, which consisted of the Presidents of the industrial unions of the AFL-CIO and CEOs of major American companies engaged in international trade. The international trade practice, which he founded, became the world’s largest during his years at the law firm of Dewey Ballantine. It was notably successful in large case litigation often with the negotiation of mutually beneficial results. He represented the U.S. semiconductor industry on trade matters from its near infancy from February 1980 until accepting appointment to the WTO in 2017.

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, in its review of the lending policies in the IMF and the World Bank, and participated in the work of the OECD Development Assistance Committee. He represented the United States 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.

Wolff has lectured and written extensively on trade topics including the need for a strong, open rules-based multilateral trading system. The articles he contributed to Fortune Magazine (online) and speeches given during his service as WTO Deputy Director General are available on the web at Fortune.com and at WTO.org. He has co-authored several books on international competition and competitiveness. He has lectured and taught at numerous universities and was a Distinguished Research Professor at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies at Monterey, a graduate school of Middlebury College.

He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), is a lifetime National Associate of the National Academies, having served several terms on the Science, Technology and Economic Policy Board of the Academies and chairing its Committee on Comparative Innovation Policies. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and was a Member the E15 Initiative’s Experts Group (Innovation). He is Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Trade and Commercial Diplomacy (ITCD).

Bar Admissions

• Massachusetts
• New York
• District of Columbia

Court Admissions

• U.S. Supreme Court
• U.S. Court of International Trade
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

Trade Litigation

• Numerous antidumping, countervailing duty and safeguard cases, section 301 actions, all before U.S. government agencies.
• Senior member of the legal team supporting the U.S. government in a variety of GATT and WTO cases.
• During service as General Counsel of the Office of the Special Representative for Trade Negotiations between 1974 and 1977, oversaw all GATT-related disputes in which the United States was involved.

Experience in International Negotiations

• Active in a variety of negotiations with Canada, Japan, the EU, and others during government service, as well as in GATT negotiations.
• Senior Industry Advisor to the U.S. Government, on behalf of clients on various specific trade matters, such as semiconductors and softwood lumber. Active on behalf of the National Foreign Trade Council and other organizations during the Uruguay Round, WTO Ministerial meetings, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.
• Senior U.S. Government Negotiator, US Japan Bilateral Trade Negotiations 1977-79.
• Chair, Trade Policy Review Group (Coordinator for US Trade Negotiations) Tokyo Round, 1977-79
• Acting Head of U.S. Delegation to the Multilateral Trade Negotiations (under GATT), Geneva, Switzerland. 1975
• Legal Counsel, U.S. Government Negotiating Team regarding Enlargement of the European Common Market.

Board and Committee Memberships, Committee Assignments

• Chairman, National Foreign Trade Council (2011 - 2017)
• E-15 Experts Group, International Trade (2014 - present)
• National Associate, National Academies (2004 – lifetime appointment)
• Chairman of the Board, Institute for Trade and Commercial Diplomacy (1998 - present)
• Member, Council on Foreign Relations (1979 - present)
• U.S. Trade Representative’s Services Policy Advisory Committee (1980-86)
• U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Services Trade Policy Task Force (1982-83)
• The President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Negotiations (1980-82)
• Chairman, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Overseas Business Practices Committee (1980)
• Chairman, Services Trade Law Subcommittee, U.S. Chamber of Commerce (1980)

Personal Life

He is married to the Rev. Hélène N. Wolff. They have three children and six grandchildren.

Works

Books (co-author, editor, contributor)

• Rising to the Challenge: U.S. Innovation Policy for the Global Economy, co-author and co-editor, National Research Council, 2012.
• Conflict Among Nations: Trade Policies in the 1990s, co-author and co-editor, Westview Press (1992).
• Steel and the State: Government Intervention and Steel’s Structural Crisis, co-author and co-editor, Westview Press (1988).
• The Microelectronics Race. The Impact of Government Policy on International Competition, co-author and co-editor, Westview Press (1988).

Articles

• The elusive (but essential) quest for quality ISO Focus Magazine, 136, 2019.
• "Evaluating the Current World Trading System; Considering its future". American University International Law Review Vol. 33 P. 681
• China’s New Anti-Monopoly Law, A Perspective from the United States, Pacific Rim Law and Policy Review. U of Washington Law School, Co-author with T. Howell, R. Howe, Oh D. January 2009.
• Remedy in WTO Dispute Settlement, in WTO: Governance, Dispute Settlement & Developing Countries, Merit E. Janow, Victoria Donaldson, Alan Yanovich, Editors, Columbia University, January 2008.
• China’s Drive Toward Innovation, in Issues in Science and Technology, National Academy of Sciences and University of Texas at Austin, Spring 2007

Selected Papers/Speeches/Testimony/Presentations

• WTO DDGs call for heightened cooperation on vaccine availability on 1 February 2021
• Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff speaking to ministers from a cross-section of the WTO membership on 29 January 2021
• Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff speaking at the 9th edition of the China Round Table on WTO Accessions on 11 December 2020
• Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff at a concluding session of the WTO’s “Trade for Peace” Week on 4 December 2020
• Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff speaking at the opening session of Trade for Peace Week on 30 November 2020
• Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff speaking at the “1+6” roundtable meeting presided by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on 24 November 2020
• Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff speaking at an event to leaders from the Group of 20 leading economies on 21 November 2020
• Remarks by DDG Alan Wolff at the WTO 25th anniversary event on 19 November 2020
• Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff speaking at an event in Washington DC on the future of the WTO on 17 November 2020
• Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff speaking at a virtual World Economic Forum meeting looking at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the healthcare industry on 12 November 2020
• Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff speaking at a Graduate Institute event on revitalizing multilateralism on November 10 2020
• Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff speaking at the High-Level Regional Dialogue on WTO Accessions for the Arab Region hosted by the Arab Monetary Fund and Islamic Development Bank on 8 November 2020
• Director-General Alan Wolff in remarks to the autumn meeting of the UN Chief Executives Board on 6 November 2020
• Short Answers to Big Questions on the WTO and the Environment
• Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff speaking at a “Geneva Trade Week” event at the Graduate Institute on 2 October 2020
• Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff speaking at the opening plenary of Geneva Trade Week organized by the Graduate Institute of Geneva on 28 September 2020
• Statement of Alan Wm. Wolff, Joint Acting Director-General of the World Trade Organization G20 Trade Ministers Meeting
• Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff speaking at the “Trade for Peace” webinar jointly organized by the WTO and the Institute for Economics and Peace on 16 June 2020
• Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff hosted by the Foreign Trade Authority of Saudi Arabia on 7 May 2020
• Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff in virtual remarks delivered to a webinar on the role of the WTO in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic hosted by the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing on 20 April 2020
• Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff speaking at an event in Washington DC on the future of the WTO on 3 March 2020

References

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