Monday, June 19, 2017

Two trader negotiators named by U.S.

Gregory Doud, who was chief economist for the National Cattlemen’s Association for eight years, has been named chief agriculture negotiator for the United States.

Re-negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement will be one of his first challenges.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has also chosen his top trade official. Jason Hafemeister, currently serving as the acting deputy under secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, will be acting deputy under secretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs.

Doud has been given the rank of ambassador, United States Trade Representative.

Doud is the current president of the Commodity Markets Council, where he has served since 2013. 

Prior to that, he was a senior professional staff member of the Senate Agriculture Committee for Sen. Pat Roberts, a Republican from Kansas, and Sen. Thad Cochran, a Republican from Missouri.
He has also worked for the U.S. Wheat Associates and the World Perspectives firm. Doud was raised on a farm near Mankato, Kansas.

Hafemeister has served with the U.S. Department of Agriculture for nearly 20 years. He was the lead U.S. negotiator on agriculture in the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Doha Round, the Central America Free Trade Agreement, and China’s accession to the WTO.

He was instrumental in finalizing the recent agreement to allow the importing of U.S. beef to China.