Dr Elitsa Garnizova 

Dr Elitsa Garnizova is the Founder and Director of LSE Consulting’s Trade Policy Hub (TPH). She leads on trade-related policy research, impact and policy evaluations, stakeholder consultations and product development. Elitsa has worked on a range of projects for public and private institutions on barriers to trade and investment and regulatory issues in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, Mercosur, South Korea and the US. She has written on vulnerabilities of supply chains, US-UK-EU relations, implementation of trade agreements, economic benefits of services trade, digital market access and sustainability issues both for policy and academic audiences. She holds a PhD in International Political Economy from the LSE, an MA in European Studies from KU Leuven, Belgium, and a BSc in International Economics and Management from Bocconi University, Italy.

She is also a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and a Visiting Lecturer at New Bulgarian University. She teaches courses in Global Political Economy, European Trade Policy, and European Union Policies. She is also the lead of the UACES Research Network on Trade Implementation and Enforcement Research (TIER).

Dr Jean-Baptiste Velut

Dr Jean-Baptiste Velut is Associate Professor at Sorbonne Nouvelle University of Paris. His research focuses on US and European trade policies, trade agreements and globalization debates. Jean-Baptiste is a senior expert with LSE Consulting’s Trade Policy Hub, for which he coordinated the 7-country comparative analysis of TSD approaches commissioned by DG Trade. His recent publications include Understanding Mega Trade Deals: The Political and Economic Governance of New Cross-Regionalism (Routledge, 2018) and a preface to the book “Vers une politique commerciale socialement responsable dans un contexte de tensions commerciales” edited by E. Boulanger, M. Rioux & S. Zini (Presses de l’Université du Québec, 2021). He is currently writing a book on civil society inclusion and new trade linkages in US trade policymaking.

Mr Ulrich Weigl
Head of Unit, Directorate-General for Trade, European Commission 

Mr Ulrich Weigl is heading the bilateral Trade and Sustainable Development unit in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Trade. The unit is responsible for the negotiation and implementation of Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) commitments in bilateral trade and investment agreements. This includes policy development like the ongoing review of the implementation and enforcement of such TSD commitments. The unit is also responsible for the application and monitoring of the EU’s Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP). The EU is currently reviewing its GSP for its future application as from 1.1.2024. Mr Weigl joined the unit in autumn 2020. Before that, Mr Weigl worked for the EU Commission, DG Trade on trade topics like Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, bilateral trade relations with South Korea, non-tariff agreements of the WTO, and trade defence (TDI). Mr Weigl also represented the EU on trade matters in China (2016-2020) and South Korea (2001-2005).

Dr Daniel Bloemers
Policy Officer, Directorate-General for Trade, European Commission

Dr Daniel W. Bloemers serves as Policy Officer for Trade and Sustainable Development in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade, where he negotiates and implements Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) commitments in trade agreements between the European Union and third countries (mainly Latin America and Asia). As part of the ongoing review of the implementation and enforcement of such TSD commitments, he guided the LSE Comparative Analysis of Trade and Sustainable Development Provisions in Free Trade Agreements. An EU official since 2015, Daniel previously worked on international public procurement as well as innovation policy files. Before joining the European Commission, Daniel was Head of Business Development and Strategy Planning at the Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy.

Pierre Bouchard
Director, Trade and Labour Affairs division, Labour Program of Employment and Social Development Canada

Mr Bouchard has been director of the Trade and Labour Affairs (TLA) division of the Labour Program of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) for over 18 years. TLA is responsible for the negotiation and implementation of the labour provisions of Canada’s Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) as well as for the supervision of Canadian technical assistance in the labour area. Mr Bouchard is the lead negotiator for the labour provisions of all of Canada’s FTAs and as such was involved in negotiations such as the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA); the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP); and the Canada-European Union Trade Agreement (CETA).

Mr Bouchard holds an M.A. in International Affairs from Carleton University in Ottawa and has done Ph.D. studies in international relations at the London School of Economics and at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Mr Bouchard lectured at several universities in Canada and abroad in the field of international relations, particularly on topics related to international political economy, strategic studies and human rights. He is a graduate of the 2015-2016 National Security Programme of the Department of National Defence.

Before joining the Labour Program, Mr Bouchard worked at Global Affairs Canada as well as with several non-governmental organizations.

Dana Cryderman
Deputy Director - Inclusive Trade, Global Affairs Canada

Dana Cryderman is a Canadian Foreign Service Officer with previous postings in Venezuela and at the Organisation of American States in Washington, DC. She also has extensive experience in trade policy, representing the Government of Canada in Trade and Environment chapter negotiations (including on CETA) and government procurement negotiations as well three years experience working in the CETA Secretariat. Dana Cryderman is currently Deputy Director for Inclusive Trade in the Trade Agreements Secretariat. She has a Master’s Degree in Human Rights from the European Inter-university Centre in Venice Italy, and a Degree in Political Science and Latin American Studies from the University of Alberta. She speaks English, French, Spanish, German and Italian. 

Dominik Ledergerber
Senior Advisor, Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research EAER, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO, Free Trade Agreements/EFTA Division

Dominik Ledergerber is a senior advisor in the Free Trade Agreements/EFTA division at Switzerland's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, SECO. After working on international labour affairs and business and human rights at the multilateral level (ILO, UN), he has recently focused on negotiating and implementing preferential trade agreements, first at the Secretariat of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and now in his current function at SECO. In this context, he has worked on trade in services, investment, and trade and sustainable development.

Kathleen Claussen
Associate Professor of Law at University of Miami, and former associate general counsel at USTR

Kathleen Claussen is Professor at the University of Miami School of Law.  She is the author of more than 30 articles and essays concerning trade, investment, and international dispute settlement, among other related research areas.  Her most recent articles have appeared or are forthcoming in the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Columbia Law Review, and the Virginia Law Review.   

Professor Claussen also serves in various leadership capacities for international law organizations, including as co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Economic Law.  

Prior to joining the academy, Professor Claussen was Associate General Counsel at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) where she spent three years as lead labor counsel for the agency.  Earlier in her career, she was Legal Counsel at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague covering disputes between countries and investment law arbitrations.  

In 2020, Professor Claussen was appointed to the dispute settlement and labor rosters of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.  From 2020-2021, she served as an invited member of the Biden-Harris Transition Team.  

She is a graduate of the Yale Law School, Queen’s University Belfast where she was a Mitchell Scholar, and Indiana University where she was a Wells Scholar.