Ambassador Susan Schwab, Professor and former Dean of the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy and former United States Trade Representative, will present a public talk titled, "Power and Politics in the WTO" at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 28 in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall, on the Princeton University campus.

Ambassador Susan C. Schwab became the United States Trade Representative (USTR) on June 8, 2006, a position she held until 2009.  As USTR, she was a member of the President's Cabinet and served as the President's principal trade advisor, negotiator, and spokesperson on trade issues.  From October 2005 until her confirmation as U. S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Schwab served as Deputy USTR.

During her tenure, Ambassador Schwab successfully concluded bilateral free trade agreements with Peru, Colombia, Panama and South Korea.  In her trade enforcement role, Schwab was able to settle a two-decade long dispute with Canada over soft-wood lumber, and has launched and/or worked to resolve trade disputes with China, the European Union and others, primarily related to market access, intellectual property and illegal subsidies.

Ambassador Schwab served as Dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy from 1995 through 2003.  Before joining the Administration, she held the position of President and CEO of the University System of Maryland (USM) Foundation and USM Vice Chancellor for Advancement.  Schwab formerly served as Director of Corporate Business Development at Motorola, Inc., where she handled strategic planning and negotiation in China and elsewhere in Asia.  Schwab also served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service during the Administration of George H.W. Bush.

Schwab spent most of the 1980s as a trade policy specialist and then legislative director for Senator John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), playing a major role in numerous U.S. trade policy initiatives, including landmark trade legislation that Congress enacted in 1984 and 1988.  Previously, Schwab served as a Trade Policy Officer in the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.  Her first job was as an agricultural trade negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Ambassador Schwab is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). She published "Trade-Offs: Negotiating the Omnibus Trade Act" (Harvard Business School Press, 1994), as well as articles on U.S.–Japan trade relations, trade politics, and public policy education.

This event is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School and is free and open to the public.