The Geopolitics of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: Speakers and Panelists

Ambassador (Ret.) Charles Ries is Vice President, International at the RAND Corporation, where he oversees RAND’s international offices and strategy.  At RAND from 2009, his research has focused on ways to promote economic growth and development in a variety of settings.  While on a leave of absence from RAND in 2010, Ries served as Executive Vice President of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

Ries’ more than three decades in the U.S. diplomatic service included four years (2000-2004) as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, where he was responsible for the U.S.-EU dialogue and economic relations between the U.S. and Europe.  He also served as Ambassador to Greece (2004-2007), Minister-Counselor for Economic Affairs at U.S. Embassy London (1996-2000), and Minister-Counselor for Economic Affairs, at the U.S. Mission to the European Union (1992-1996).

Ambassador Ries was detailed to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (1990-92) and served as Deputy Assistant USTR for North American Affairs.  Ries led the NAFTA negotiating group responsible for standards and conformity assessment matters, resulting in Chapter 9 of the agreement.  He also directed an interagency environmental review of the NAFTA, the first such environmental assessment of a trade agreement by the U.S. Ries also spend 14 months at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad (2007–2008), where he was responsible for oversight and coordination of assistance and economic policy initiatives. Ries is the first recipient of the State Department’s Rockwell Schnabel Award for U.S.-EU Relations (2004) for his “imaginative, dedicated leadership of the U.S. European Relationship,” as well as the Cordell Hull Award for Senior Economic Officers (2008), Distinguished Honor Award (2004), and Presidential Meritorious Service Award (2002).  For service in Iraq, he received the Department of the Army’s Outstanding Civilian Service Award.  He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Academy of American Diplomacy and Chairman of the Policy Council of the Cox Foundation.

Panel 2: TTIP, emerging markets and the multilateral trading system

Christopher Smart

Christopher Smart currently serves as the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for International Economics, Trade & Investment at the National Security Council where he is responsible for a broad range of issues related to the President’s agenda on global trade, investment and relations with developed economies.  From 2009 to 2013, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury for Europe and Eurasia, where he led the Treasury Department’s response to the European financial crisis and managed the U.S. economic and financial relationships with more than 50 countries in Europe, Russia and Central Asia. Through July 2009, Dr. Smart was Director of International Investments at Pioneer Investment Management in Boston, Massachusetts, and manager of several portfolios investing in Europe, Asia and Latin America.  Under his management, the Pioneer Emerging Markets Fund posted performance among the top quartile of its peer group from 2005 to 2007.  In 2008, Barron’s-Value Line designated him on its list of Top 100 Mutual Fund Managers.  Christopher is also a frequent commentator on global finance for CNBC, Bloomberg TV, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and many other publications.

In 1993, Christopher served as Moscow Director of the Macroeconomic and Finance Unit, an advisory group to the Russian Ministry of Finance on a grant from the Ford Foundation. The following year, he was appointed Deputy General Director of the Russian Privatization Center, the principal conduit for foreign technical assistance on issues of market reform.  Earlier in his career, he was a research associate at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., and a newspaper reporter in St. Petersburg, Florida and Paris, France.

With 15 years of work and study abroad, Christopher speaks fluent French and Russian and is the author of numerous articles on the former Soviet Union, including the book *The Imagery of Soviet Foreign Policy and the Collapse of the Russian Empire *(Praeger Publishers, 1995).  He received his B.A. from Yale University and his Ph.D. in International Relations from Columbia University.  He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and, until July 2009, a director of Accion International.

Peter S. Rashish

Peter Rashish has over 25 years of engagement as a transatlantic policy entrepreneur – as a senior executive of the world’s largest business federation, a strategic advisor to major international companies, and as a consultant to international organizations, think tanks and foundations.

Currently Senior Advisor for Europe and Transatlantic Trade at Transnational Strategy Group LLC, Mr. Rashish earlier served as Vice President for Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he was the senior Chamber official with responsibility for crafting and implementing strategies to promote the interests of Chamber members in the transatlantic market. He spearheaded the Chamber’s advocacy for an ambitious and comprehensive trade agreement between the United States and the European Union, which has been officially launched as the “Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership,” and developed new engagements in the continent’s emerging markets.

Previously, Mr. Rashish has served as an executive with several Washington-based international advisory firms, as Executive Vice President of the European Institute, on the Paris-based staff of the International Energy Agency, and as a consultant to the World Bank, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Atlantic Council, the Bertelsmann Foundation, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Mr. Rashish has testified on the Eurozone and U.S-European economic relations before the House Financial Services subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade and the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Europe and Eurasia.

Mr. Rashish is a Senior Fellow (Nonresident) at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University, a Senior Advisor to the European Policy Centre in Brussels, a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and has served on the faculty of the Salzburg Global Seminar and as a guest lecturer at the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business.

He earned his B.A. from Harvard College and an M.Phil. in international relations from Oxford University. He speaks French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

Dan Ikenson is director of Cato’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, where he coordinates and conducts research on all manners of international trade and investment policy. Since joining Cato in 2000, Ikenson has authored dozens of papers on various aspects of trade policy, focusing his research on U.S.-China trade relations; bilateral and multilateral trade agreements and institutions; globalization; U.S. manufacturing issues; trade politics; and trade remedies, such as the antidumping regime.

Ikenson has been involved in international trade since 1990. Before joining Cato in 2000, he was director of international trade planning for an international accounting and business advisory firm. In 1997, he cofounded and was a principal at an international trade consulting firm in Washington, D.C., and from 1990 to 1997 he was a trade policy and antidumping analyst at a few international trade law practices in Washington, D.C. In addition to his many studies and articles, Ikenson is coauthor of the book Antidumping Exposed: The Devilish Details of Unfair Trade Law. He has testified before a variety of congressional committees on various policy matters. He has appeared on numerous television news programs on various networks, including PBS, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, MSNBC, ABC News, Fox News, Fox Business News, and NPR. His articles have been published in widely circulated newspapers and magazines, including the Wall Street Journal,the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Times, the Detroit News, Forbes, and National Review.

Dr. Susan Aaronson

Susan Ariel Aaronson is Research Professor at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and the former Minerva Chair at the National War College. She directs a fellowship fund for students working on internet issues, the eBay Policy Scholars, and has organized a seminar series on Internet issues. While at GWU, Aaronson has received grants from the MacArthur, Ford, Swiss National Science Foundation and Ford Motor Company for her work on internet freedom and trade, corruption, and business and human rights. Her current research focuses on malware, trade and trust; the WTO and conflict; and repression, civil conflict and socio-economic outcomes. Dr. Aaronson is a frequent speaker on public understanding of globalization issues and international economic developments. She was a regular commentator on “All Things Considered” in 1994–1995, “Marketplace” from 1995–1998, and “Morning Edition” from 1998-2001. She has also appeared on CNN, the BBC, and PBS to discuss trade and globalization issues. She has also been a Guest Scholar in Economics at the Brookings Institution (1995–1999); and a Research Fellow at the World Trade Institute 2008-2012. Dr. Aaronson is the Treasurer of Giganet; serves on the Advisory Board for Business-Human Rights; and is a Senior External Advisor to the Business and Society Team of Oxford Analytica. In recent years, she has been a pro-bono advisor to the UN Special Representative on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights, and the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. She has also consulted for the ILO; the World Bank; Free the Slaves; the Ford Foundation; the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative; the Stanley Foundation; several corporations; and the governments of Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands, among others. Aaronson is the author of six books and numerous articles on trade, human rights, internet governance, and other issues related to globalization.

Dr. Joshua Walker