Ambassador — Jeff Goettman
Mr. Jeffrey Goettman serves as Counselor to the United States Trade Representative and has been nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as the Deputy USTR for Africa, the Western Hemisphere, Europe, the Middle East, the Environment, Labor and Industrial Competitiveness.
Prior to joining USTR, Mr. Goettman served as the Chief of Staff to Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, the Transition Director for the Governor-Elect, and the Chief Operating Office and Policy Director for the Youngkin for Governor campaign. During the first Trump Administration, Mr. Goettman was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Export-Import Bank and a Counselor for Domestic Finance at the Department of Treasury.
Mr. Goettman has enjoyed a successful career in private equity and investment banking. He founded a private investment firm, CameronBlue Capital, and was a Managing Member at Thayer Capital Partners. Previously, Mr. Goettman specialized in mergers and acquisitions as an investment banker with Morgan Stanley, Wasserstein Perella, and Robertson Stephens. Mr. Goettman graduated magna cum laude with honors in Economics from Duke University and received an MBA from the Stanford School of Business.
Ambassador — Rick Switzer
Ambassador Rick Switzer is the Deputy United States Trade Representative. Prior to his appointment as Deputy USTR, he was the founder and principal of ProjX Technology Consulting. During Rick's 20 year career as a member of the Foreign Service he served as the State Department visiting professor at the National Intelligence University teaching graduate courses on China’s economy and innovation system, as a member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Council, and a Senior State Department Advisor to the Department of Defense working with the Air Force and the Army.
Other highlights include serving as the Environment, Science, Technology and Health Counselor at Embassy Beijing, the largest science section in the world. While on sabbatical from State, he also spent a year as a Senior Fellow at the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a non-profit founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Before his government service, Rick co-founded a wireless technology start-up and also conducted innovation policy research at the University of California.
Ambassador — Joseph Barloon
Joseph Barloon is the Deputy United States Trade Representative and Chief of Mission for the Permanent Mission of the United States to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. In addition to representing the United States at the WTO, Ambassador Barloon serves as the U.S. Trade Representative's Senior Official in other multilateral fora, such as the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and the Group of Seven and Group of 20 meetings.
Ambassador Barloon served as USTR General Counsel from 2019-2021. As General Counsel, he initiated and oversaw enforcement actions against trading partners, supervised U.S. litigation at the WTO, and advised the Trade Representative on all legal matters. Outside of his government service, Ambassador Barloon was a senior litigation partner at a Washington law firm for more than 15 years. He represented clients in federal courts across the country and was repeatedly ranked as a top practitioner in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business. He was also a member of the adjunct faculty at Georgetown University Law Center.
Ambassador Barloon received his B.A. from Harvard University, an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and his J.D., Summa Cum Laude, from Georgetown University Law Center.
Ambassador — Julie Callahan
Julie Callahan is the Chief Agricultural Negotiator of the United States. In this position, Ambassador Callahan works to promote the interests of U.S. farmers, ranchers and food manufacturers, including through conducting negotiations on tariff and non-tariff barriers affecting U.S. agricultural exports, addressing agricultural issues at the World Trade Organization, advocating on behalf of U.S. agriculture, enforcing agriculture-related commitments of trading partners, and opening markets for U.S. agriculture.
Dr. Callahan served as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Agricultural Affairs and Commodity Policy from 2020-2025, where she led the USTR Agriculture Office in agricultural trade negotiations and the development and coordination of U.S. agricultural trade policy. Dr. Callahan previously served as a Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative and Senior Director in the USTR Agriculture Office, focusing on strategic engagement in UN organizations, bilateral and regional sanitary and phytosanitary issues, and agriculture-related technical barriers to trade.
Prior to joining USTR, Dr. Callahan held senior leadership positions in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, executing strategic and operational planning, and aligning FDA analytical and policy approaches to preempt or resolve regulatory issues that arise in international trade. She has also served in the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service and the American Chemical Society
Ambassador Callahan earned her Bachelor of Science from MIT, and Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts.
