Ep. 23 – WITA’s Friday Exchange: Digital Spats, Transactional Isolationism, and the WTO Phoenix

Mark Linscott is a Senior Advisor with the US India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), leading efforts to advance US-India trade. He also serves as a Senior Advisor at The Asia Group and a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center.

Previously, Linscott was Assistant U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) for South and Central Asian Affairs from December 2016 to December 2018, serving as the U.S. government lead in developing trade policy with countries across South and Central Asia. He led efforts in the bilateral Trade Policy Forum with India and in Trade and Investment Framework Agreements (TIFAs) with Central Asia, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

From 2012 to 2016, Linscott served as Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for World Trade Organization (WTO) and Multilateral Affairs, coordinating U.S. trade policies in the WTO. He and his team led negotiations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on customs matters, government procurement, subsidies and trade remedies, and technical barriers to trade, and he represented the United States in trade meetings of the G-20 and the OECD.

Linscott was Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Environment and Natural Resources from October 2003 to March 2012, overseeing all trade and environment issues for USTR, including in free trade agreement negotiations such as the TPP and in the WTO and OECD. During this period, he developed a robust agenda on illegal logging and associated trade through Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and bilateral agreements with Indonesia and China.

From 1996 to 2002, Linscott represented the United States at the U.S. Mission to the WTO in Geneva and was a founding member of the WTO Pension Fund Management Board. Prior to Geneva, he worked in the Office of WTO and Multilateral Affairs at USTR in Washington, where he concluded the Uruguay Round Government Procurement Agreement as the lead U.S. negotiator.

Linscott began his career at the Department of Commerce, serving from 1985 to 1988 in Import Administration and from 1988 to 1992 in the Office of Multilateral Affairs. He was awarded a Gold Medal Award, the Commerce Department’s highest honor, for his work on the 1986 Canadian softwood lumber investigation.

Linscott holds a BA in economics from the University of Virginia and a JD from Georgetown University Law Center. He and his wife, Karen, live in Washington, DC, where he tinkers on his café racer motorcycles and paddles on the Potomac.

Penelope (Penny) Naas is a global public policy leader who designs strategies on international economic issues that sit at the nexus of geopolitics, trade, and climate. She is an adviser for TradeExperettes, a global organization of women trade experts.

Naas has created innovative strategies and solutions for Citigroup and, more recently, for UPS as its president for international public affairs and global sustainability. She opened and was managing director of Citigroup’s first government affairs office in Brussels between 2007 and 2012 before leading UPS’s international team from 2012 to 2019. She started her career at the US Department of Commerce, where she worked for 13 years on international economic issues and advancing the commercial interests of US companies in Europe.

Naas holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is on several boards and has co-chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Trade and Investment.

Christopher Padilla is a Senior Advisor based in Brunswick’s Washington, DC office. He brings senior experience from decades spent in government policy and corporate roles, and practical perspective from his time as a supply chain practitioner. He has championed advocacy efforts on trade, tariffs, and tax policy at the highest levels of government worldwide.

Previously, Padilla led global government and regulatory affairs for IBM Corporation for 15 years. He oversaw a team of advocacy professionals in 36 countries, and trade and sanctions compliance for IBM’s global operations.

Before IBM, Padilla held senior roles in the Commerce Department. The President twice appointed him to Senate-confirmed positions, as Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, and as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration. He also held roles as an Assistant United States Trade Representative, a Senior Advisor at the Department of State, and as a member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

Earlier, he spent 15 years in marketing, business development, and international trade relations roles at AT&T and Eastman Kodak Company. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in international economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Joe Damond’s career spans more than 40 years in both the government and private sectors in Washington. He served 16 years as a trade official at the Department of Commerce and the Office of the United States Trade Representative, which included a diverse set of responsibilities. Most notably, for seven years as deputy assistant United States trade representative for Asia and the Pacific, he was responsible for executing United States trade policy with Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and served as chief negotiator of bilateral trade agreements with Laos and Cambodia and the historic Bilateral Trade Agreement with Vietnam, which was concluded in 2000. He also served as the chair of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Committee on Trade and Investment. Mr. Damond then spent more than 20 years in the private sector, holding senior positions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors focused on international trade and health policy issues and global government affairs, and representing the sector during numerous bilateral and global trade agreements. In addition, he has spent the last four years as a consultant on healthcare and trade policy issues, representing both private sector and government clients with a focus on Asia and Europe. He is the author of Give Trade a Chance: The Negotiation of the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement.