Outreach Workshop on International Trade
Outreach Workshop onInternational Trade,
NAFTA &the Environment
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Lubar Commons (7200 Law), UW LawSchool
Agenda
2:45-3:00Registration
3:00-3:05Welcome
Sumudu Atapattu
Associate Director, Global LegalStudiesCenter, UW LawSchool
3:05 – 3:30“Business and Legal Aspects of Investment under NAFTA”
Erik Ibele
Attorney, Neider & Boucher SC, Madison& Adjunct Professor, UW Law School
3:30- 4:00“Environmental Protection under NAFTA”
Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger
Director, Center for International Sustainable Development Law, Montreal, Canada
4:00- 4:15Q&A Session
4:15-4:20Break
4:20-4:45“The Impact of International Trade on Wisconsin”
Susan Dragotta
Outreach Consultant, Wisconsin Department of Commerce
4:45-5:15“Impact of NAFTA on Trade and Investment in Mexico”
Dr Gustavo Vega-Canovas
Director, Center for International Studies, El Colegio de Mexico
Mexico City, Mexico
5:15-5:30Q&A Session
5:30-6:00Reception
Biographies of speakers
Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger is the Director of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) in Canada, and a Fellow of the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law at Cambridge University Faculty of Law, UK. She is also the head of International Affairs for the Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources. She has many publications to her credit: these includeSustainable Development Law: Principles, Practices and Prospects (Oxford University Press, 2004) with A. Khalfan; Sustainable Justice: Reconciling Economic, Social and Environmental Law (Martinus Nijhoff, 2004) with former Vice-President of the International Court of Justice, Judge C. G. Weeramantry; and Sustainable Development in World Trade Law (Kluwer Law International, 2005) with Dr. M. Gehring.
She serves on the boards of the International Law Association (Canadian Branch) and the International Trade and Investment Centre (Conference Board of Canada), as the Canadian expert representative on the International Law Association’s (ILA) Committee on International Law on Sustainable Development, and as a Chair of the IUCN Environmental Law Commissions’ Expert Group on Trade and Environment Law. She also chairs a joint CISDL – ILA – IDLO Partnership on International Law for Sustainable Development, launched at the World Summit for Sustainable Development. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, is profiled by the United Nations Environment Programme in their global ‘Who’s Who of Women and the Environment’ and has held several international awards including a Chevening and a Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council(SSHRC) Fellowship for a Ph.D. in International Law at Oxford University (Exeter College). She holds a Masters of Environmental Management in Economics, Environmental Law and Policy from the YaleUniversity, degrees in Civil Law and Common Law from McGill University, Canada and a Bachelors of Arts Honors degree. She speaks and writes fluent French, English and Spanish as well as intermediate German and Portuguese.
Susan Dragotta is the Southeastern Wisconsin International Trade Consultant and Latin America Specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Commerce. She works with local companies interested in expanding their export sales. Susan joined the Wisconsin Department of Commerce in 1999 after working in international business development for several Milwaukee-area companies.Susan has traveled extensively in Latin America and Europe. Her Spanish language capability has made Latin American business development her focus, in both her private and public sector positions.
Susan is currently co-chair of the Education Committee for the Milwaukee World Trade Association, and Vice Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Global Education and TradeCenter at WaukeshaCountyTechnicalCollege. She has taught courses in global business for the University of Phoenix and OttawaUniversity, and is a frequent guest speaker at UW-Milwaukee and Marquette. She has provided training to her counterparts in other states through the State International Development Organization. Susan has an undergraduate degree from UW-Madison and a graduate degree in International Business Management from UW-Milwaukee.
Erik IbelejoinedNeiderBoucher, S.C., Attorneys & Counselors, Madison in 1981 and his areas of expertise include Business Transactions, Intellectual Property and Immigration. He focuses on Copyright and Trademark, Software and Technology Licensing, International Transactions and Business Immigration. He teaches International Trade Law at UW Law School as an adjunct professor. He has a J.D. Degree from University of Wisconsin Law School and carried out Graduate Study in Law, at the University of Bonn, Germany (Comparative Law and Private International Law). He also has a B.A. in Political Science from the LawrenceUniversity.
He has served on the U. S. Peace Corps in Afghanistan (1973-75) and speaks German and Pushtu. He considers teaching at UW Law School his “proudest professional achievement” and pro bono representation of clients seeking political asylum in the U.S. his “proudest community accomplishment.”
Gustavo Vega-Cánovas is Director of the Center for International Studies at the Colegio de México, where he is also a professor. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from theYaleUniversity, where he specialized in international relations, comparative politics and international political economy. He is an expert in U.S.-Mexican economic relations and North American integration, having studied and written extensively on the topic for the past 15 years. His current line of research looks at the implications of 9/11 on the future of NAFTA and his recent publications include: “Unfair Trade Practices and Dispute Resolution Mechanisms in Free Trade Agreements of the Americas: The Experience of North America and Chile” (2001, in Spanish), "NAFTA and the EU: Toward Convergence?" (an edited volume by Jeffrey J. Anderson 1999), and an edited volume produced from two conferences cosponsored by the Watson Institute and the Luso-American Foundation in Lisbon. Professor Vega-Cánovas has been a member of five binational panels under Chapter 19 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He is a member of the National System of Researchers (SNI) of Mexico's Education Ministry.