Source:  Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 4/1/11

United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk today announced that Sharon Bomer Lauritsen will join USTR in early May as the new Assistant United States Trade Representative for Agricultural Affairs and Commodity Policy.

Prior to coming to USTR, Sharon served as the Executive Vice President of the Food and Agriculture Section at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).  While there she lead and managed BIO’s Food and Agriculture Section on public policy activities.  Among them included overseeing relationships with a wide range of international, federal, state and local entities.  

In addition, Sharon previously served as Deputy Assistant United States Trade Representative for Agricultural Affairs as well as a senior manager in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service.

The Office of Agricultural Affairs has overall responsibility for negotiations and policy coordination regarding agriculture.  Responsibilities of the office include Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and World Trade Organization (WTO) Development Agenda (Doha) negotiations on agriculture, operation of the WTO Committees on Agriculture and on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures.

Additionally, the Office of Agricultural Affairs is responsible for agricultural regulatory issues, including biotechnology, animal cloning and customs issues affecting the agriculture industry, the monitoring and enforcement of existing WTO and FTA commitments for agriculture, and WTO accession negotiations on agriculture market access.

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