Ambassador Susan C. Schwab was nominated to be United States Trade Representative by President George W. Bush on April 18, 2006, and was confirmed as USTR by the United States Senate on June 8, 2006.  As USTR, Ambassador Schwab is a member of the President's Cabinet and serves as the President’s principal trade advisor, negotiator, and spokesperson on trade issues.  From October 2005 until her confirmation as U. S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Schwab served as Deputy USTR. 

The Office of the USTR is responsible for the development and oversight of U.S. trade policy, including strategy, negotiation, implementation and enforcement of multilateral, regional/bilateral and sector-specific trade agreements.  These include the ongoing Doha Development Agenda multilateral trade negotiations, as well as the seventeen Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) to which the United States is currently a party.  During her tenure, Ambassador Schwab successfully concluded bilateral FTAs with Peru, Colombia, Panama and South Korea; several agreements were ratified by the U.S. Congress (Bahrain, Oman, Peru) or entered into force (CAFTA).  FTAs with Colombia, Panama and South Korea await Congressional approval.  More broadly, Ambassador Schwab is responsible for U.S. trade policy involving agriculture, industry, services and investment; intellectual property; environment; labor; development and preference programs.  Finally, in her trade enforcement role, Schwab was able to settle a two-decade long dispute with Canada over soft-wood lumber, and has launched and/or worked to resolve trade disputes with China, the European Union and others, primarily related to market access, intellectual property and illegal subsidies.

Ambassador Schwab served as Dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy from 1995 through 2003.  Immediately before joining the Administration, she held the position of President and CEO of the University System of Maryland (USM) Foundation and USM Vice Chancellor for Advancement.  Schwab came to the University of Maryland from Motorola, Inc., where she served as Director of Corporate Business Development, and where she was engaged in strategic planning and negotiation on behalf of the company in China and elsewhere in Asia.  Prior to that appointment she was Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service, responsible for the promotion of American exports, during the Administration of George H.W. Bush. 

Schwab spent most of the 1980s as a trade policy specialist and then legislative director for Senator John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), playing a major role in numerous U.S. trade policy initiatives, including landmark trade legislation that Congress enacted in 1984 and 1988.  Previously, Schwab served as a Trade Policy Officer in the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.  Her first job was as an agricultural trade negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. 

Ambassador Schwab is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA).  She previously served on the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Board of Trustees of the Council for Excellence in Government and the National Selection Committee for the Innovations in American Government Awards program.  She holds a B.A. in Political Economy from Williams College, a Masters in Development Policy from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Public Administration and International Business from The George Washington University.

Ambassador Schwab has published articles and a book on U.S. trade policy and legislation (“Trade-Offs: Negotiating the Omnibus Trade Act,” Harvard Business School Press, 1994), as well as articles on U.S.–Japan trade relations, trade politics, and public policy education.