US President Joe Biden on Wednesday, 26 May, nominated Indian-American Arun Venkataraman for the post of Director-General of the United States and Foreign Commercial Service and Assistant Secretary for Global Markets in the Department of Commerce.
He is one of the six individuals recently nominated for key positions in the Biden administration.
“Mr Venkataraman is the nominee for the Director-General of the United States and Foreign Commercial Service and Assistant Secretary for Global Markets in the Department of Commerce.”White House
Arun Venkataraman is currently the Counselor to the Secretary at the US Department of Commerce.
He started his career as a law clerk at the US Court of International Trade. He holds degrees from Columbia Law School and Tufts University in law, diplomacy and international relations.
He also held three key positions during the previous democratic government – the Obama administration. He was appointed as the Director of Policy by the administration in 2014, before which he served as Associate General Counsel, and then as the Director of India at the US Trade Representative (USTR).
As Director of India, he worked on strategies to resolve trade and investment challenges in India, advocacy with Indian government officials, linkages of industries, and partnerships between the two countries.
Venkataraman provided legal advice to the USTR policy offices in ongoing bilateral and multilateral negotiations and represented the US at the World Trade Organization (WTO). He also worked as a legal officer at the WTO, where he advised on appeals in litigation between countries and was instrumental in conducting training for officials from developing countries and representatives from the private sector.
Before being re-inducted to the US government agencies in March 2020, he worked as Senior Director for Global Government Engagement at Visa for two years and as Trade Policy Advisor to Steptoe and Johnson LLP for eleven months before that.
According to the White House readout, Venkataraman has more than 20 years of experience in advising companies, international organisations, and the US government on International trade issues.
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