Haven’t registered for the Government Affairs Conference yet? Don’t wait! The program is packed with information from experts on international trade. Here’s just one:

Keynote Speaker: Ambassador Rufus Yerxa

Ambassador Yerxa became President of the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) in May 2016. The NFTC, founded in 1914, is the leading trade association dedicated solely to advancing the interests of US companies in international commerce. The organization represents over 200 companies through its offices in Washington, D.C. and New York. As president, he oversees NFTC’s efforts in favor of a more open, rules based world economy, focusing on key issues to US competitiveness such as international trade and tax policy, economic sanctions, export finance and human resource management. He is also a Visiting Professor with the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS).

He has more than three decades of experience as a lawyer, diplomat, US trade negotiator and international official. He has been in key policymaking and management roles in Congress, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), and also spent several years in private law practice and the corporate world. As Deputy Director General of the WTO from 2002 to 2013 he helped to broaden its membership and strengthen its role as the principal rules-based institution governing world trade. Prior to this, from 1989 to 1995, he served as Deputy USTR under both a Republican and a Democratic President, first as the Geneva-based Ambassador to the GATT (the predecessor organization to the WTO) and subsequently as the Washington Deputy.

Earlier in his government career (1981 to 1989) he was with the Committee on Ways and Means of the US House of Representatives, where he was Staff Director of the Subcommittee on Trade. He began his government career as a legal advisor with the US International Trade Commission. After leaving government service in 1995 and prior to joining the WTO he spent five years in the private sector, first as the Brussels-based partner with a major US law firm and later as European general counsel for a Fortune 500 company. Rufus is a native of Washington State. He holds a BA in political science from the University of Washington (1973), a JD from Seattle University School of Law (1976) and an LLB in international Law from the University of Cambridge in England (1977). He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar, and is also a Visiting Professor with the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS).

Come hear what Ambassador Yerxa has to say about the current state of international trade, and the NAFTA renegotiation. Register today!