John M. Melle

Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for the Western Hemisphere

John M. Melle is Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for the Western Hemisphere. He is responsible for developing, coordinating and implementing U.S. trade policy for the region. This includes responsibility for the pending trade agreements with Colombia and Panama, as well as trade agreements in place with Canada and Mexico, Chile, Central America and the Dominican Republic and Peru. In addition, Mr. Melle is responsible for two regional trade preference programs, the Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA) and the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), as well as bilateral trade with Brazil, Argentina and the remainder of South America and the Caribbean.

Since joining USTR in 1988, Mr. Melle has held a number of positions. Most recently, since 2002 he was the Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for North America, with responsibility for oversight of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and bilateral trade issues with Canada and Mexico. Mr. Melle has worked on Western Hemisphere trade issues in various other capacities since 1991, including Director of Caribbean Basin Affairs from 1991 to 1993 and Director and Deputy Assistant USTR for Mexico from 1993-2002. He began his career at USTR as Deputy Director of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) from 1988 to 1991. Mr. Melle entered Federal government service as a Presidential Management Intern and spent his first two years in government service at the Policy, Planning and Analysis Office at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Mr. Melle received a B.A. in history from Haverford College and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Michigan.