Brazil nominates Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo For WTO DG

WTO: 2012 NEWS ITEMS

31 December 2012
DIRECTOR-GENERAL SELECTION PROCESS
Brazil nominates Mr Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo for post of WTO Director-General

Brasil, on 28 December 2012, nominated Mr Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo for the post of WTO Director-General to succeed the current Director-General, Mr Pascal Lamy, whose term of office expires on 31 August 2013.

BIOGRAPHY: Mr Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo

Ambassador Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo, a Brazilian career diplomat, has been the Permanent Representative of Brazil to the WTO and other International Economic Organisations in Geneva since 2008. Besides WTO, Ambassador Azevêdo also represents Brazil before other economic organisations, such as the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the United Nations Council for Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

Having joined the Brazilian Foreign Service in 1984, he has since then accumulated vast experience in international economic and trade policy matters, including dispute settlement. Ambassador Azevêdo’s last position in Brasilia, from 2006 to 2008 at the Ministry of Foreign Relations, was Vice-Minister for Economic and Technological Affairs. In that capacity, he was Brazil’s chief-negotiator for the Doha Round and supervised MERCOSUR’s trade negotiations with other groupings or countries outside Latin America.

Prior to that, he was the Director of the Department of Economic Affairs (2005/6) and Head of the Dispute Settlement Unit (2001/05). Ambassador Azevêdo was Brazil’s chief-litigator in many important disputes at the WTO. He also served on and chaired WTO dispute-settlement panels.

Ambassador Azevêdo has participated, in various capacities, in nearly all WTO ministerial conferences since the launch of the Doha Round. As Brazil’s Senior Official and as Permanent Representative to the WTO, his tested experience and hands-on approach have earned him the reputation of a well-prepared and credible negotiator, capable of identifying creative solutions and building consensus around them.

In his diplomatic career, Ambassador Azevêdo served at the Embassies of Brazil in Washington (1988-91) and Montevideo (1992-94), as well as at the Permanent Mission of Brazil in Geneva (1997-2001). In Brasilia, he was also Deputy Chief of Staff for Economic Affairs to the Foreign Minister (1995-96).

Ambassador Azevêdo represented Brazil in different specialised international bodies such as the FAO Codex Alimentarius Commission, the International Cotton Council, International Cotton Advisory Committee, the OECD Trade Committee, among others.
He was also the leading negotiator for Brazil in the Revision of the OECD Sector Understanding on Export Credits for Civil Aircraft.
Ambassador Azevêdo’s academic background is in Electrical Engineering, at the University of Brasília, and in International Relations, at “Instituto Rio Branco”, the Diplomatic Academy of the Foreign Ministry. He has been a frequent lecturer on topics of the international economic agenda and has published numerous articles on those issues.
His mother tongue is Portuguese. He is fluent in all of the three official languages of the WTO: English, French, and Spanish.

Ambassador Azevêdo is 55. He is married, with two daughters.

ENDS

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