Deputy United States Trade Representative and Chief of Mission (Geneva)
María L. Pagán is Deputy United States Trade Representative and Chief of Mission in the Geneva office. She was previously Deputy General Counsel in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. She is responsible for supervising and providing legal advice to senior USTR officials on all legal aspects regarding trade negotiations, implementation of trade agreements, and trade related legislation and regulations. She has been the lead U.S. attorney for numerous trade agreement negotiations, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Peru and Colombia free trade agreements, and the revised WTO Agreement on Government Procurement. Before becoming Deputy General Counsel, she specialized in providing legal advice on services, government procurement, and section 421 (country-specific safeguard), among other things, and also litigated several disputes before the WTO. Prior to joining USTR in 2003, Ms. Pagán worked as an attorney advisor in the Office of the Chief Counsel for International Commerce at the U.S. Department of Commerce (1993 – 2003).
Ms. Pagán received her law degree and a Masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and a B.A. from Tufts University. She is from Puerto Rico, and has a son.