Charlene Barshefsky

Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Paul Tsai China Center
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Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow of the Paul Tsai China Center.  She is Senior International Partner at the WilmerHale law firm in Washington, D.C., and has been a participant in our Center’s activities for many years. She joined WilmerHale after serving as the U.S. Trade Representative—the chief trade negotiator and principal trade policymaker for the United States—from 1997 to 2001, and acting and deputy USTR from 1993 to 1996. She is best known internationally as the architect and chief negotiator of China’s historic WTO agreement, as well as global agreements in financial services, telecommunications, intellectual property rights, high-technology products and cyberspace. She is widely recognized as a central thought-leader and practitioner in the fields of international business and international economic and trade issues. Her legal career in the field has encompassed international litigation, commercial and government negotiations, investment and regulatory advice, and dispute resolution, and she has written and lectured extensively both here and abroad. Her negotiations are the subject of several Harvard Business School case studies, and she has received many honors for lifetime achievement, including a number of honorary degrees and industry awards. She is based in Washington, D.C.