Rufus Hawkins Yerxa (born May 6, 1951) is a retired American lawyer and former U.S. government and international official. He served as Deputy United States Trade Representative during the George H.W. Bush and Clinton Administrations, and served for 11 years as Deputy Director General of the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...

(WTO). From 2016 to 2021 he was President of the National Foreign Trade Council.

Education

Yerxa holds degrees from *

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

(BA), 1973 * Seattle University (JD), 1976 * University of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

(LLB, International Law), 1977

Career

From 1977-81 he was legal advisor to the chairman of the

International Trade Commission The United States International Trade Commission (USITC or I.T.C.) is an agency of the United States federal government that advises the legislative and executive branches on matters of trade. It was created by Congress in 1916 as the U.S. Tari ...

. From 1981-89 he was a staff member of the U.S. House

Ways and Means Committee A ways and means committee is a government body that is charged with reviewing and making recommendations for government budgets. Because the raising of revenue is vital to carrying out governmental operations, such a committee is tasked with fi ...

, serving as staff director of its Subcommittee on Trade and later as Assistant Chief Counsel of the full Committee. From 1989 to 1995 he was a Deputy United States Trade Representative (USTR), serving first in Geneva as U.S. ambassador to the

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is a legal agreement between many countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas. According to its p ...

(GATT), and subsequently as Deputy USTR in Washington. He played a key role in the Uruguay Round Negotiations, and was later responsible for overseeing the Clinton Administration's efforts to obtain Congressional approval of both NAFTA and the WTO Agreement. After leaving government service In the mid-1990s, he was a resident partner in the

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

office of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, where his practice focused on international trade and European regulatory matters. In 2002 he was appointed to serve as Deputy Director General of the WTO, a position he held until 2013. During this time he was also a lecturer on U.S. trade policy at the World Trade Institute (WTI) in Berne. After retiring from the WTO he joined the faculty of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) in Monterey, California as a visiting professor. From 2016 to 2021 he was President of the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), a trade association in Washington representing U.S. companies on global trade and investment matters. From February 2022 to June 2024 he was a Senior Advisor with McClarty Associates, advising their international trade practice both in Washington and internationally.

References

External links

President Clinton's nomination of Yerxa to be a Deputy U.S. Trade Representative
clinton6.nara.gov, March 18, 1993. * 1951 births Living people American lawyers International Trade Commission personnel Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University of Washington alumni George H. W. Bush administration personnel Clinton administration personnel Date of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) World Trade Organization people Monsanto employees {{international-trade-stub