Speaker Biographies

Susan G. Esserman is deputy U.S. trade representative, appointed to this position by President Clinton in 1999 and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Her portfolio encompasses the development of trade policy and negotiations in the World Trade Organization and other multilateral forums, as well as Europe, Russia and the Newly Independent States of the Former Soviet Union, the Middle East, and Africa. Ambassador Esserman also has responsibility for developing the U.S. agenda for the WTO ministerial meetings in Seattle. Ambassador Esserman has held three other senior posts in the Clinton administration. As general counsel to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, she had lead responsibility for all legal issues related to U.S. trade policy, including the enforcement of U.S. rights under international trade agreements. She entered the administration in March 1994 as assistant secretary for import administration, and in 1997 she served as acting general counsel at the Department of Commerce. Prior to entering the government, Ambassador Esserman was a partner at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Steptoe & Johnson, where she specialized in international trade law and litigation. She began her career as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge Oliver Gasch. She received her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School (1977), where she was on the editorial board of the law review. She graduated from Wellesley College (1974) with honors.

Grant Aldonas joined the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance in September 1997, where he serves as the chief international trade counsel to the majority. He is responsible for all trade matters before the committee, including extensions of trade negotiating authority, implementation of trade agreements, preferential trade arrangements such as the Generalized System of Preferences and the Caribbean Basin Initiative, and the enforcement of the U.S. trade and customs laws. He is also responsible for the committee's oversight of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Import Administration, the U.S. Customs Service and the International Trade Commission. Prior to joining the Finance Committee, Aldonas was a partner with Miller & Chevalier, a Washington, D.C., law firm specializing in tax, international trade, investment, and litigation. Before entering private practice, he served in government as a Foreign Service officer with the Department of State, including a stint as a special assistant to the under secretary of State for economic affairs. Aldonas graduated in 1975 from the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in International Relations, and in 1979 with a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School. He has authored numerous articles on international trade, investment, and related topics.

Ronald A. Cass is dean of the Boston University School of Law and Melville Madison Bigelow Professor of Law. From 1988 to 1990, Dean Cass served as a member of the U.S. International Trade Commission and, in 1989-90, as the commission’s vice chairman. He began his teaching career at the University of Virginia and joined the School of Law faculty in 1981. Before that, Dean Cass served as clerk to Chief Judge Collins Seitz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and then was associated with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin & Kahn. Dean Cass has been consultant to the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the Administrative Conference of the United States, the Aspen Institute, the American Trial Lawyers’ Association, the U.S. Department of Justice, and Microsoft Corporation. In 1999 he was a senior fellow at the International Center for Economic Research in Torino, Italy, and was named a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He is the coauthor of a major casebook in administrative law, books on international trade and communications law and chapters in anthologies on international trade law, administrative law, and First Amendment law. Dean Cass has also published many scholarly articles in such journals as the Duke Law Journal, the Virginia Law Review, the UCLA Law Review, and the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. He received his B.A. from the University of Virginia and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.

When the highly regarded O’Leary/ Kamber Report named 20 individuals as "people who will lead the 1990’s," it selected one member of the U.S. Congress: David Dreier. Now in his 10th term, Representative Dreier is chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Rules and also serves in the House leadership as a member of the Republican Steering Committee. Dreier was a chief Republican negotiator with the Clinton administration for the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. He also served as cochairman of the Republican leadership China MFN TaskForce; captained the anti-trade-sanctions team in the bipartisan House Oxford-style debate on trade and human rights; and coauthored the 1994 Hamilton-Dreier-Matsui-Kolbe amendment, which extended normal trade status for China. Dreier has received 10 successive Golden Bulldog awards from the Watchdogs of the Treasury and Taxpayer’s Best Friend awards from the National Taxpayers Union for his votes to curb federal spending and reduce taxes. He has been given 100 percent approval ratings by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and BIPAC (Business and Industry). Dreier graduated cum laude from Claremont McKenna College and earned a master’s degree in American government from the Claremont Graduate School.

Dan Griswold is associate director of the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies. He has authored or coauthored studies for Cato on the new round of WTO negotiations, imports and manufacturing, congressional voting on trade, steel protectionism, the trade deficit, and fast-track legislation. He coedited the Cato book, Economic Casualties: How U.S. Foreign Policy Undermines Trade, Growth, and Liberty, released in March 1999. He has been published in major newspapers and has appeared on national TV and radio, including Fox News Channel, CNN-fn, the MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour, Reuters Financial TV, and National Public Radio. Griswold has testified before congressional committees and commissions on the trade deficit and steel trade. He holds a B.S. in journalism from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and a diploma in economics and an M.Sc. in the Politics of the World Economy from the London School of Economics.

Douglas Irwin is professor of economics at Dartmouth College and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He was previously on the faculty of the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business and has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also served on the staff of President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers (1986-87) and was an economist in the International Finance Division of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. Irwin is author of Against the Tide: An Intellectual History of Free Trade (Princeton University Press, 1996), Managed Trade: The Case against Import Targets (AEI Press, 1994), Three Simple Principles of Trade Policy (AEI Press, 1996), and many articles on trade policy in books and professional journals.

Eric S. Koenig is a Washington, D.C.-based senior corporate attorney and senior federal government affairs manager for Microsoft Corporation. He has responsibility for managing the company’s federal policy issues team and handles intellectual property, competition, and international trade matters. He joined Microsoft in 1991 and worked for seven years in the European headquarters in Paris, France, managing intellectual property rights legislative and enforcement efforts and litigation as well as competition matters, and providing commercial advice for the business. Prior to moving to Europe, Koenig clerked for the Honorable Stanley S. Brotman (D-N.J.) and practiced law as an associate at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., from 1986 to 1990, where he specialized in commercial litigation and international trade matters. He spent 1990 in the Federal Republic of Germany as a Chancellor’s Scholar under the auspices of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Koenig graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1980 and received a law degree from New York University in 1984.

William H. Lash III is professor of law at George Mason University School of Law and distinguished senior fellow of the Center for the Study of American Business at Washington University in St. Louis. His areas of research include corporate and securities law, international trade law, and international environmental law. Before joining the George Mason faculty in 1994, Professor Lash taught law at St. Louis University and Western New England College. He was a senior associate in the litigation department of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson in Washington, D.C., and counsel to the U.S. International Trade Commission. He also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Alan B. Handler, associate justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, and as foreign legal consultant to Dutilh, Van der Hoeven & Slager in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He is the author of U.S. International Trade Regulation: A Primer (AEI Press, 1999). His articles have appeared in numerous publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, and the Journal of Commerce. Professor Lash has a B.A. (1982) from Yale University and J.D. (1985) from Harvard University.

Brink Lindsey is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and the director of its Center for Trade Policy Studies. Lindsey has written and spoken widely on trade policy issues. His most recent Cato study is "The U.S. Antidumping Law: Rhetoric versus Reality" (Trade Policy Analysis no. 7, August 16, 1999). In addition to his numerous publications for the Cato Institute, he is a contributing editor of Reason, and his articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Journal of Commerce, the Washington Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Weekly Standard, and elsewhere. He has testified before Congress and has appeared on CNN, CNBC, National Public Radio, and many other media outlets. Lindsey is an attorney with extensive experience in international trade regulation. He has defended free-trade interests in antidumping, countervailing duty, Section 201, and Section 301 investigations and in WTO disputes. He currently serves as senior legal advisor to the international trade group of the law firm of White & Case. Lindsey was formerly Cato's director of regulatory studies and senior editor of Regulation magazine. He holds an A.B. from Princeton University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Paul Morris is minister-counsellor (Agriculture) in the Australian Embassy in Washington, D.C. He is responsible for monitoring and analyzing U.S. policy developments in the agricultural sector and for representing Australian interests to the U.S. government, industries, and interest groups. Prior to coming to the United States, Morris spent 12 years with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE), a professionally independent economic research agency attached to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in Australia. He has also worked on three government inquiries—the Royal Commission into Grain Storage, Handling and Transport; the Committee of Review into the Wool Industry; and the Wool Industry Review Committee. He was Australia’s representative to the OECD Committee for Fisheries for two years and is presently chairman of he Standing Committee of the International Cotton Advisory Committee. Morris has a commerce degree from the University of Melbourne and postgraduate qualifications from the Australian National University.

William A. Niskanen—a former defense analyst, business economist, and professor—has been chairman of the Cato Institute since stepping down as acting chairman of President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers in 1985. He also serves as adviser to the Center for Trade Policy Studies. Niskanen has written and lectured on a wide range of issues, including international trade and finance. Prior to serving four years at the Council of Economic Advisers, he was the director of economics at the Ford Motor Company for five years and assistant director of the Office of Management and Budget for two years. Niskanen holds an A.B. from Harvard College and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago. He is the author of Bureaucracy and Representative Government and Reaganomics: An Insider’s Account of the Policies and the People, named one of the 10 best books of 1988 by Business Week.

Russell Roberts is Distinguished Scholar and John M. Olin Visiting Professor of Labor Economics and Public Policy at the Center for the Study of American Business at Washington University. His research and writing center on the interaction between economics and public policy. He is the author of The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protectionism, which was named one of the top 10 books of 1994 by Business Week and one of the best books of 1994 by the Financial Times. His forthcoming book, The Invisible Heart, will be published by MIT Press in 2000. Roberts is a frequent commentator on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. In addition to numerous academic publications, he has written for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Prior to joining the Center for the Study of American Business, Roberts was director of the Center for Experiential Learning at the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University. Roberts has also taught at the University of Rochester, Stanford University, and UCLA. He was a National Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the Hoover Institution from 1985 to 1987. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago.

Razeen Sally has been lecturer in international political economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science since 1993. He is also a member of its recently established International Trade Policy Unit. In 1992-93 he was a research fellow at the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD) in Fontainebleau, France, and he was a visiting professor at Dartmouth College in 1998. Sally is author of the book Classical Liberalism and International Economic Order: Studies in Theory and Intellectual History (Routledge, 1998) and many articles and chapters in books on trade policy. He also makes frequent appearances on TV and radio commenting on international economic issues. Sally received his Ph.D. from the LSE in 1992, having previously studied at the University of Frankfurt, the Free University of Berlin and the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

Jeffrey Schott is a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics. Prior to joining IIE, he was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1982-83) and an international economist at the US Treasury (1974-82). He is the editor of Launching New Global Trade Talks: An Action Agenda, Restarting Fast Track (1998), and The World Trading System: Challenges Ahead (1996), author of Prospects for Western Hemisphere Free Trade (forthcoming 1999), WTO 2000: Setting the Course for World Trade (1996), The Uruguay Round: An Assessment (1994), coauthor of Reforming Economic Sanctions with Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Kimberly Ann Elliott (forthcoming 1999), Western Hemisphere Economic Integration (1994), NAFTA: An Assessment (rev. 1993), North American Free Trade: Issues and Recommendations (1992), Completing the Uruguay Round (1990), Economic Sanctions Reconsidered (2d ed. 1990), Free Trade Areas and US Trade Policy (1989), The Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement: The Global Impact (1988), Auction Quotas and US Trade Policy (1987), and Trading for Growth: The Next Round of Trade Negotiations (1985).

J. Robert Vastine

J. Robert Vastine has served as president of the Coalition of Service Industries since his appointment to that position in January 1996. The 19-year-old coalition, based in Washington D.C., represents the interests of the U.S. service sector, which accounts for more than 75 percent of U.S. economic activity and employment. Prior to joining CSI, Vastine served in Washington as president of the Congressional Economic Leadership Institute. Vastine has served as staff director of the Senate Republican Conference and as minority staff director of the Senate Committee on Government Affairs. He also served as deputy assistant secretary of the treasury for international trade and raw materials policy under President Gerald Ford and as vice president of the oversight board of the Resolution Trust Corporation. In the private sector, Robert Vastine was manager of national government affairs for CPC International, Inc. He is chairman of the official Industry Sector Advisory Committee for International Trade in Services. He was a fellow of the Institute of Politics of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and is coauthor of The Kennedy Round and the Future of American Trade as well as many articles on U.S. trade policy. Vastine is a graduate of Haverford and of the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies.