International Trade Administration,
U.S. Department of Commerce

Ronald K. Lorentzen

Acting Assistant Secretary for Import Administration and
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Import Administration

Ron Lorentzen is the Acting Assistant Secretary for Import Administration (IA).  In this capacity, he leads IA’s enforcement of trade laws and agreements to protect U.S. industries and workers from unfair pricing by foreign companies and unfair subsidies to foreign companies by their governments.

Mr. Lorentzen was named Deputy Assistant Secretary for Import Administration in January 2009.  In this capacity, he works with other senior staff to manage the day-to-day operations of Import Administration.  He also advises the Assistant Secretary on program and policy issues and serves as a senior policy advisor to the Under Secretary and Deputy Under Secretary for International Trade.

Prior to January 2009, Ron was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Negotiations in Import Administration.  In this capacity, he oversaw work on a broad range of policy issues and served as a lead U.S. negotiator on trade remedy rule issues in the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO).  Before assuming this position, Mr. Lorentzen directed the Office of Policy in Import Administration.

Prior to July 2001, Ron was the Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for WTO and Multilateral Affairs.  In that capacity, he helped coordinate the United States’ overall participation in the work of the WTO, including the 1996, 1998 and 1999 WTO ministerial conferences.  At USTR, Ron was chiefly responsible for U.S. policy concerning WTO rules governing trade remedies, the trade-related aspects of competition policy, and industrial policy measures.

Before beginning his tenure at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in April 1995, Mr. Lorentzen had a fellowship in the Department of Commerce’s Office of Technology Policy, where he advised officials on the interaction and relationship between U.S. trade and technology policies.  He also held several previous positions in the Commerce Department’s Import Administration, where he was a key member of the U.S. negotiating teams to the GATT Uruguay Round negotiations on subsidies and antidumping practices.

Ron was born in Ashtabula, Ohio.  He received a Bachelor of Arts degree (1977) in French and International Studies from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.  In 1979, Ron received a Masters degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.