Revered trade attorney and public servant Alan Wolff tabbed as a new deputy director-general
The World Trade Organization has named longtime American trade negotiator Alan Wm. Wolff as deputy director-general.
Wolff replaces David Stark, who wrapped up a four-year term as deputy director-general within the global trade body. He will serve alongside existing WTO deputy directors-general Yonov Frederick Agah of Nigeria, Karl Brauner of Germany, and Yi Xiaozhun of China during Director-General Roberto Azevêdo’s second term, starting Sept. 1.
“Alan Wolff will be an excellent addition to the leadership team at the WTO,” Azevêdo said in a June 27 statement. “He is a very experienced, well-known and well-regarded trade lawyer, respected around the world and by the trade community in the U.S. He is a strong supporter of trade as a key driver of growth and development and a strong supporter of the multilateral trading system. I look forward to working with Alan at this important moment for global trade.”
Wolff has served as senior counsel at the global law firm Dentons, and has been in charge of resolving some of the largest international trade disputes on record. For the past six years he has also served as the chairman of the National Foreign Trade Council and chairs the board of the Institute for Trade and Commercial Diplomacy.
Within the U.S. government, he served as U.S. deputy special representative for trade negotiations in the Carter administration and was general counsel to the Ford administration. He was acting head of the U.S. delegation for the Tokyo Round, and a key draftsman of the U.S. law creating a mandate for trade negotiations. As deputy U.S. trade representative, he started the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Steel Committee and was its first chairman. He has also served as a senior trade negotiator in, and advisor to, both Republican and Democratic administrations.
“I have known and worked with Alan Wolff for many years, both inside and out of government, and I am extremely pleased that the WTO has reached out to appoint someone with his experience, knowledge and wisdom as the next American deputy director-general,” said NFTC President Rufus Yerxa.
Wolff of WTO
