Mateo Diego-Fernández

Mateo Diego Fernandez is a founding partner at Agon, the largest competition and regulation practice in Latin America, where he advises and represents clients on the legal aspects of Mexico’s various regulatory frameworks. He also carries out compliance excercises for corporate clients and trade associations. From 2008 to 2013, Mr. Diego Fernandez was Chief Counsel at Mexico’s Federal Competition Commission, where he oversaw all administrative procedures brought before the Commission and advised all areas on technical matters. He was also an active participant in the drafting of Mexico’s 2011 Competition Law.

Between 1998 and 2008, he acted as Counsellor and later Minister of Mexico’s Mission to the WTO, where he was part of Mexico’s negotiating team during the Doha round, including participation in the drafting and presentation of Mexico’s position in various areas. He participated in the Mexican delegation in the Hong Kong, Cancun, Doha and Seattle Ministerial Meetings of the WTO, as well as in various informal gatherings in Switzerland, France and China. He was also Mexico’s Representative to OECD’s Trade Committee and various UNCTAD gatherings. He was Mexico’s delegate before the Dispute Settlement Body and promoted the negotiations on dispute settlement in the WTO, including the creation of an informal discussion group on the issue. He also represented Mexico in various other bodies of the WTO, covering areas such as intellectual property, antidumping, subsidies and safeguards.

Mr. Diego Fernandez has argued for Mexico in more than thirty disputes and has served on four WTO Panels. He was also appointed facilitator for the Airbus-Boeing case. He is a member of the list of arbiters of the World Intellectual Property Organization and of various free trade agreements.

Between 1994 and 1998, he was part of the Legal Team in the Ministry of Commerce in charge of international trade, where he negotiated various free trade agreements with Latin America and Israel and participated in different NAFTA working groups, as well as in other fora, such as APEC and OECD.

Mr. Diego Fernandez holds a degree in law from the Instituto Technológico Autónomo de México and a master’s degree in international relations from the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations.