WASHINGTON - Today, Josette Sheeran Shiner was sworn in as Deputy
U.S. Trade Representative. As part of her responsibilities, Sheeran Shiner will
be the lead U.S. negotiator for trade issues involving East Asia, South Asia,
and Africa. She will also oversee issues concerning labor and environment and
trade capacity building. Sheeran Shiner was nominated to the deputy position by
President George Bush and unanimously confirmed by the Senate on August 1,
2003.
“Open markets benefit American workers, families, consumers and
businesses, as well as providing hope and opportunity to the developing world,”
said Sheeran Shiner. “President Bush and Ambassador Zoellick have restored
America’s leadership in global trade liberalization, and I intend to do
everything I can to maintain this momentum and to ensure that our trading
partners implement their commitments to us.”
Before her nomination, Sheeran Shiner was the Associate U.S. Trade
Representative and one of Zoellick’s top advisers, serving as a chief policy
strategist on trade and globalization issues and overseeing numerous negotiating
sectors as well as the agency’s communications and outreach operations.
With a wide-ranging background in policy, journalism and the
private sector, Sheeran Shiner brings a unique combination of talents to
government service. Before joining USTR, she was managing director of Starpoint
Solutions, a leading Wall Street technology firm that works with Fortune 500
clients. Prior to Starpoint, she served as President and Chief Executive Officer
of Empower America.
During her tenure as managing editor of The Washington Times, she
twice served as a Pulitzer Prize juror, including for foreign reporting. As a
reporter, she covered the White House, Congress and State Department and wrote a
nationally syndicated column for Scripps Howard News Service. In 1997,
Washingtonian magazine named Sheeran Shiner as one of Washington’s 100 Most
Powerful Women.
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