NEW YORK – May 22 – The board of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations elected former U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky as chair of the board. Ambassador Barshefsky is best known globally as the architect and negotiator of China’s WTO agreement, which opened China’s economy as a worldwide market. She succeeds Chairman and CEO of Chubb Limited and Chubb Group Evan G. Greenberg, who was elected to serve as Executive Vice Chair.
“When times are good, what the National Committee does is a really nice-to-have,” said Ambassador Barshefsky. “When times are the way they are now, what the National Committee does is essential. It’s not a nice-to-have. It’s a have-to-have. Because in a period of instability and volatility and acrimony, creating avenues that provide some relief, some outlet, some series of vectors that didn’t exist before that provide a backdoor for both sides to be able to take a deep breath…This is absolutely vital.”
Ambassador Barshefsky is chair of Parkside Global Advisors, Washington, D.C, where she advises multinational companies on their global market access, investment, and negotiation strategies. She previously served as Senior International Partner at WilmerHale where she chaired the firm’s International Trade, Investment and Market Access Group. She joined WilmerHale after serving as the United States Trade Representative from 1997 to 2001 and Acting and Deputy USTR from 1993 to 1996.
As the United States Trade Representative and a member of the President’s Cabinet,
Ambassador Barshefsky was responsible for the formulation of U.S. trade policy and the
negotiation of hundreds of complex trade and investment agreements that significantly
opened markets, removed regulatory barriers and cemented protections for U.S. investment from Europe to Asia, Africa to Latin America and the Middle East. She also led the negotiation of global agreements to open the financial services and telecommunications sectors, remove global tariffs on information technology products and protect intellectual property rights.
Long renowned in the U.S. and around the world for her negotiating, policy and strategic
skills in transactions with governments, state-owned enterprises and private companies,
Ambassador Barshefsky has been honored by both Harvard and Yale law schools. Her
negotiations with China are the subject of several Harvard Business School case studies; and
her negotiating and strategic skills have been heavily profiled in a large number of books,
magazines, and newspapers. She is a lecturer and op-ed contributor in the U.S. and abroad
on trade and international economic issues of importance and is the recipient of a number
of honorary degrees and numerous other accolades for lifetime achievement. She has been
formally recognized as one of the most influential lawyers in the United States.
Ambassador Barshefsky serves on the Boards of Directors of the Estee Lauder Companies
and Stagwell Inc, and formerly served on the boards of the American Express Company,
Intel Corporation and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. She is a Trustee of the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a Director of the Climate Leadership Council, and a
Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is also an advisor to a broad array of
foreign policy-oriented and economic institutions devoted to public policy and international
relations.