Gérard Depayre

Prior to his present activities as consultant in international trade in Geneva, in which he advises private firms as well as governmental organizations, Mr. Depayre worked for the EU Commission from 1976 to 2005. He has spent most of his career working on the European Union’s external economic and trade relations. He has extensive experience in trade relations with all the EU’s major partners, having served as Deputy Director General for EU trade policy (including trade defense instruments) and relations with North America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, NAFTA and APEC (1996-1999). In this position, he was the Commission’s negotiator under Commissioner Leon Brittan, for China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and negotiated the May 1998 agreements to settle the transatlantic dispute over the extraterritorial effects of US sanctions legislation (Helms Burton and D’Amato Acts).

Prior to this, Mr. Depayre was Director of the EU trade policy instruments Services, covering antidumping, safeguards, subsidies and other instruments of external economic policy. He was the EU Commission negotiator for the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Duties in the Uruguay Round. From May 2001 to August 2005 he was Deputy Head of the European Commission’s Delegation in Washington.

Mr. Depayre completed undergraduate and graduate degrees in Law and Economics at the University of Paris.