The Office of the United States Trade Representative

Schwab Announces Appointment of Chief Counsel for China Trade Enforcement
06/23/2006


Washington, DC – Following a meeting with House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab today announced the appointment of Claire E. Reade to serve as Chief Counsel for China Trade Enforcement.

The position was created as part of USTR’s top-to-bottom review of U.S. - China trade relations. Reade will coordinate USTR's efforts to ensure China's compliance with its international trade commitments, particularly its WTO obligations and the important commitments that China has made within the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT). She will also co-chair USTR's newly formed China Enforcement Task Force.

"We will aggressively enforce the commitments that China made under the WTO and other trade agreements," said Schwab. "Claire Reade will bring extraordinary legal talent and energy, as well as decades of top flight international trade litigation experience to our China enforcement efforts. Her appointment will help ensure that American companies, workers, and farmers gain the full benefit of our trade agreements with China."

Currently, Reade is a senior partner at the law firm of Arnold & Porter where she has been a leading international trade litigator since 1982. Reade has represented U.S. and foreign clients in major international trade disputes on a wide variety of international market access and other trade issues.

Reade is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a former chair of the American Bar Association International Trade Law Section, a former chair of the ABA Council on Asia, and a frequent speaker on international trade law issues. An honors graduate of Harvard Law School, Reade also holds a Masters of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. After graduating from Harvard, Reade spent 1979 -1980 in Taipei, Taiwan, studying Chinese dispute resolution procedures under a Harvard Sheldon Fellowship, pursuing her studies in written and spoken Mandarin Chinese.

She and her husband have two grown children.