Thank you for joining WITA for a unique pop-up industry briefing live streamed from the World Trade Organization’s 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Featured Speakers Live in Yaoundé:
Alice Slayton Clark, Senior VP of Trade, Investment and Digital Policy, United States Council for International Business
Isabelle Icso, Executive Director, International Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Special Online Guests:
Angela Ellard, Senior Advisor (non-resident), Center for Strategic and International Studies; former Deputy Director General, World Trade Organization
Maria Pagan, former Deputy United States Trade Representative, and United States Ambassador to the WTO
Alice Slayton Clark, Senior VP of Trade, Investment and Digital Policy, United States Council for International Business
Alice Slayton Clark is USCIB’s Senior VP of Trade, Investment and Digital Policy. She is a seasoned international trade professional with a strong background working with the Executive Branch, US Congress, and multilateral organizations.
Clark’s career includes roles as Senior Government Relations Advisor, International Trade Consultant, International Trade Specialist at some of the biggest US law firms, where she gained deep experience developing and implementing successful strategies for companies, associations, and foreign governments. She also represented client issues before federal and foreign officials, business leaders, business associations, government committees, and trade conferences. She began her career promoting constituent interests and new policy proposals as a foreign affairs and trade legislative advisor in the House and Senate.
Clark serves as the Vice Chair for the Business at OECD Trade Committee, shaping policy positions and speaking on behalf of the business community of the 38 OECD countries. She is a member of the Women’s Trade Policy Forum and Washington International Trade Association where she has led panel discussions on current trade topics. She also held numerous leadership roles, including as the President of the Women in International Trade (WIIT) group, where she recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Alice holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Spanish from Oberlin College. She has lived and worked overseas in Europe and Latin America and is fluent in Spanish with basic German proficiency.
Isabelle Icso, Executive Director, International Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Isabelle Icso, executive director of international policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, advocates for the Chamber’s international trade and investment priorities before the administration, Congress, and foreign governments. Icso works alongside leaders in the International Affairs Division to execute advocacy actions with a country or region-specific focus.
Before joining the Chamber, Icso was a trade and tax policy analyst with D.C. investment firm Height Capital Markets, where she analyzed policy moves and market implications.
Earlier in her career, she was a reporter with Inside U.S. Trade for roughly five years. There, her coverage focused on Capitol Hill activity, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and Trade Promotion Authority. In addition, she covered U.S. trade talks with Japan, Korea, and Brazil, as well as international summits like the G20, G7, and OECD.
Icso also has experience with the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee, where she provided in-depth research on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
She completed her bachelor’s degree in international business at the University of Rochester and her master’s from the Simon Business School there.
Special Online Guest: Angela Ellard, Senior Advisor (non-resident), Center for Strategic and International Studies; former Deputy Director General, World Trade Organization
Angela Paolini Ellard is renowned for her expertise in trade and international economic policy, resolving trade barriers, negotiating outcomes, and building coalitions. She is Senior Fellow (non-resident) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC.
Ms. Ellard served as Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization from June 2021 to August 2025. During her tenure, she was responsible for dispute settlement/reform, trade remedies, market access/trade facilitation, and negotiations to curb harmful fisheries subsidies. As a diplomat and key member of the senior leadership team, she supervised the Secretariat’s facilitation of the successful conclusion and entry into force of the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement. She also oversaw the WTO budget and financial operations, providing transparency and accountability as well as sound fiscal management.
Previously, Ms. Ellard had a distinguished 26-year career as Majority and Minority Chief Trade Counsel in the U.S. Congress. She achieved significant bipartisan trade policy outcomes with Congressional leaders and five Presidential administrations, including trade agreement negotiation and implementation, development programs, and U.S. trade and customs laws. Before her tenure on the Hill, she practiced law at major U.S.law firms, focusing on trade litigation, policy, and legislation.
She earned her J.D. cum laude/Tulane Law School, M.A. in Public Policy/Tulane University, and B.A. summa cum laude/Tulane’s Newcomb College.
She speaks and lectures worldwide and has received numerous awards for her leadership and contributions to trade law and policy.
Special Online Guest: Maria Pagan, former Deputy United States Trade Representative, and United States Ambassador to the WTO
Maria L. Pagan is an American attorney who served as the US Ambassador to the World Trade Organization in the Biden administration.
She also served as US Deputy Trade Representative. Pagan was formerly the Deputy General Counsel in the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), working on trade negotiations, agreements, and regulations.
From 1993 to 2003, Pagan was an attorney advisor in the Office of the Chief Counsel for International Commerce at the US Department of Commerce. She then joined the USTR where she provided legal counsel and litigated disputes before the World Trade Organization.
Pagan is a graduate from Tufts University and has a Juris Doctor and Masters of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
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