Ms Mette Werdelin Azzam is a Senior Technical Officer in the World Customs Organization (WCO) in Brussels, Belgium, where she has been working since 1 September 2010 as Head of Origin Sub-Directorate in the Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate.

Ms Azzam holds a Higher Technical Certificate in international business (BTS de commerce international) from a business school in Paris, France. She graduated from the Danish Customs and Tax College in 2000 and has been working in the Danish Customs Administration until February 2008 where she was posted in Brussels as Danish Customs Attaché. From December 2005 to January 2008 Ms Azzam was responsible for origin matters at the Customs Headquarter in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Ms Azzam has an extensive theoretic and practical knowledge of rules of origin legislation, both in the preferential and the non-preferential areas.

She is responsible for the technical part of the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations in the Harmonization of Non-Preferential Rules of Origin within the Technical Committee on Rules of Origin (TCRO) under the auspices of the WCO. She is the WCO liaison officer in the meetings of the WTO Committee on Rules of Origin (CRO) in Geneva.

Ms Azzam has several years of training experience within the fields of customs legislation and customs procedures. As Head of Origin Sub-Directorate she is responsible for Capacity Building and Technical Assistance activities mainly for developing countries in the area of origin legislation.

Bonggyu Chae started his career in Korea Customs Service (KCS) as Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Division.  His subsequent positions included Deputy Director of the KCS Clearance Planning Division, Chief of the Clearance Division in Busan Customs, and Chief of the KCS legal affairs team, spanning 7 years in total. He is currently employed as a Deputy Director of the KCS Free Trade Agreement Cooperation Division.  He holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics from Seoul National University and a Master of’ Public Administration from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Nan Ding is working at the Office of Rules of Origin, Department of Duty Collection, General Administration of Customs of People’s Republic of China. She holds a BA from Beihang University (China) and an MSc from the University of Warwick (United Kingdom). After an initial two years in the private sector, she has spent the past 10 years working for China Customs and concentrating on Rules of Origin (RoO). She is one of the key negotiators on RoO during China’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) talks, and was accredited by the WCO as Training Expert on RoO in 2012.

Jean-Michel Grave came from the French Customs Administration in 1989 to join the Directorate General of the European Commission responsible for Taxation and Customs Union. He dealt successively with Customs and indirect taxation-related legal issues, transit and origin. In 2006, he took charge of the unit responsible for general Customs legislation, covering in particular the modernization of the Union Customs Code. He is currently Head of Unit TAXUD B4, in charge of trade facilitation, preferential rules of origin and international coordination of Customs matters for the Americas, Africa, Far East and South Asia, Oceania and international organizations, such as the WTO and the WCO. GSP rules of origin and Customs valuation are also part of the portfolio.

Since 2001, Mr Grave has also been teaching Customs and excise matters at the "Université Libre de Bruxelles", in the context of an Advanced Master in Tax Law.

Jeremy Harris has worked as an Economist, and Integration and Trade Specialist, at the Inter-American Development Bank for more than eight years.  In this context, Mr. Harris has supported several trade negotiation processes, including the FTAA and the DR-CAFTA, as well as others within Latin America, with an emphasis on rules of origin and market access.  At the IDB he has participated in the design and development of several databases and information systems regarding market access, and serves as Team Leader on the INTrade information system (www.INTradebid.org). He has written on preferential trade agreements and their systemic effects on regional and global trade.  Outside the IDB he has worked as a consultant for the UN-ECLAC, the CARICOM Secretariat, DFID, and GTZ.  Mr. Harris holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Maryland.

Recent publications include:

“Convergence in the Rules of Origin Spaghetti Bowl: A Methodological Proposal” with Rafael Cornejo, INT-INTAL Working Paper 34

https://publications.iadb.org/handle/11319/2466                

“Rules of Origin for Development: from GSP to Global Free Trade” INT Working Paper 03

https://publications.iadb.org/handle/11319/2492

“Multilateralising Preferential Rules of Origin around the World” with Antoni Estevadeordal and Kati Suominen, INT Working Paper 08

https://publications.iadb.org/handle/11319/2521

Hiroshi Imagawa currently works with a trade-facilitation non-profit organization called JASTPRO, promoting the utilization of preferential regimes as well as assisting the activities of UN CEFACT as its secretariat in Japan.  Before retiring from long-standing public service in July 2016, he was Director for Rules of Origin, Japan Customs/Ministry of Finance (2013-2015).  A solid part of his Customs career, both domestic and overseas, was built on rules of origin - non-preferential and preferential.

In the case of non-preferential rules of origin, Mr. Imagawa was a pioneer member (Technical Attaché) of the WCO Origin Project, which aimed to tackle the harmonization of non-preferential rules of origin.  He completed his WCO career as Senior Technical Officer and Project Leader.  After nine years working in the WCO Secretariat (1994-2003), he continued the challenge of harmonization in the Geneva Committee on Rules of Origin for a further five years (2004-2008).

As regards preferential rules of origin, Mr. Imagawa started as UN Associate Expert attached to the UNCTAD GSP Technical Assistance Project based in Jakarta (1985-1988), and continued as Expert on GSP and Other Trade Laws in Geneva (1989-1990).  Returning to government service after the WCO, he was part of the Japanese delegation in 16 FTA negotiations, in particular with Asian countries, the recently concluded TPP, and the ongoing Japan/EU EPA (2004-2015).

Stefano Inama is a trade lawyer, and currently Chief, Technical Cooperation and Enhanced Integrated Framework at UNCTAD.  He was previously responsible for the Market Access, Preferences and Trade Laws Section in UNCTAD.  Mr. Inama has advised governments and private sectors for the last 25 years on drafting a positive agenda during the WTO negotiating process and the implementation of WTO agreements, and that of various regional free trade agreements.

As Coordinator of the UNCTAD Commercial Diplomacy, he developed a network of research and training centres in Asia, Africa and Latin America on WTO and regional trade issues.  He carried out numerous research projects on trade and economic policies utilizing a multidisciplinary approach in the Mediterranean region, and later in SADC and ASEAN.  Most recently, as UNCTAD Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) Focal Point, he has led multidisciplinary teams of experts in charge of updating the Diagnostic Trade Integration Studies (DTIS) of various countries.

Mr. Inama authored the book “Rules of origin in International trade”, Cambridge University Press, 2009, and a series of articles on preferences and rules of origin.  As a member of the “ASEAN Integration Through Law” project of the Center for International Law of Singapore (CILS) and New York University (NYU), he co-authored “Rules of origin in ASEAN: a way forward”.

Mr. Inama has taught courses at Amsterdam Law School, Bocconi University, and IELPO, and has also taught on the MILE Programme at the World Trade Institute in Bern, Switzerland.

Mr. Inama graduated in law from the University of Bologna and holds a Master of Advanced European Studies, LLM, and a Major in Law for European Integration from the College of Europe, Belgium.

Edward Kafeero is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Customs and International Trade Law of Muenster University in Germany.  He teaches WTO law, and his main areas of interest are trade facilitation, Customs valuation, rules of origin, international Customs instruments and legal issues of economic integration.

Edward has over 10 years' experience in these areas, as a researcher, consultant and trainer, having worked with different organizations including GIZ, INCU, MTIC, Uganda Martyrs University, the East African Community, and the World Customs Organization.

Edward completed his Master's degree and Doctorate in law at the University of Muenster, Germany.

Jonas Kasteng is a Senior Adviser at the National Board of Trade in Sweden.  His main areas of expertise are EU rules of origin and EU trade remedies.  He is currently focusing his research on the preference utilization of EU free trade agreements (in cooperation with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development - UNCTAD).  Recent publications by Mr. Kasteng include “Preventing Global Value Chains in Renewable Energy: The Use of Non-Preferential Rules of Origin as an Indirect Trade Policy Instrument in the EU”, and “The Abolition of Antidumping Measures in the EU: An Example and Inspiration for the TTIP” (a chapter in “The World Trade System: Trends and Challenges”, by MIT Press, edited by Jagdish Bhagwati et al.) Previous publications include: “Differentiation between Developing Countries in the WTO”, “Agriculture and Development in the EPA Negotiations”, “Paving the Way for Unfair Competition”, “Eliminating Anti-Dumping Measures in Regional Trade Agreements”, “Effects on Trade and Competition of Abolishing Anti-Dumping Measures”, and “Targeting the Environment” and “Trade Remedies on Clean Energy”.  Mr. Kasteng has previously worked as a Political Adviser at the Swedish Parliament, as a Trade Policy Adviser at the Swedish Board of Agriculture, and as an Adviser to the Assistant Director-General at the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean.  He has also worked, on a temporary basis, at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and at the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD).  Mr. Kasteng holds a Master of Science Degree in International Business (University of Gothenburg, Sweden).

With more than eleven years of professional experience including nine years at the Customs Directorate of the ECOWAS Commission, she has actively contributed to the consolidation of the ECOWAS free trade area, and the improvement of intra-Community trade indices in the West African region.  As part of her remit, since 2008 she has monitored and managed the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS), which is the regulatory mechanism governing the free movement of products of ECOWAS origin between member states in the Community.  From the technical point of view, she is responsible for the implementation of ECOWAS rules of origin and ensuring conformity with Community protocols in intra-community trade within the ECOWAS market space.

Ping Liu has a professional Customs career of more than 30 years, mainly devoted to Customs revenue collection and Trade Facilitation. In his capacity of Director of the Tariff and Trade Directorate of the WCO, he is responsible for the overall management of the Directorate’s work on the Harmonized System, Customs Valuation and Rules of Origin. Before taking up his current position, he held various positions at the Permanent Mission of China to the WTO, the General Administration of Customs of China, the WCO Secretariat and the Permanent Mission of China to the EU. He was Chairperson of the WCO Technical Committee on Rules of Origin for 7 years and, in his capacity as Director for Rules of Origin in China Customs, was responsible for Free Trade Agreement negotiations on rules of origin and the organisation of their nationwide implementation. He was also involved in the WTO/WCO negotiations on the harmonization of non-preferential rules of origin and the WTO Ministerial Decisions on Preferential Rules of Origin for LDCs.

Michael Lux is a lawyer, experienced in Customs administration, who began his career in the German Customs administration in 1974, where he was responsible for the surveillance of external trade and agricultural policy measures.  In 1978, he joined the Ministry of Finance in Bonn as the Deputy Head of the ‘Customs Tariff’ Unit, acting as a delegate in the WCO Harmonized System Committee and the WTO Antidumping Committee.  He was subsequently made Deputy Head of the Unit responsible for IT in Customs and excise.

Between 1987 and 2012, he joined the Customs Directorate of the European Commission, acting firstly as Head of the ‘TARIC’ Unit, where he was in charge of creating and managing the EU database for Customs tariff and other external trade measures.  He later headed the ‘Economic Tariff Questions’ Unit, in charge of tariff quotas, suspensions and Customs procedures with economic impact.  In 1998 he was appointed Head of the ‘Common Customs Tariff’ Unit, and later became the Head of the ‘Customs Legislation’ Unit where he was in charge of the overall coherence and correct application of the Community Customs Code, as well as specific provisions on the Customs debt and import/export formalities.  As Head of the ‘Customs Procedures’ Unit until 2012, he has carried responsibility for all Customs procedures and business process modelling.

Michael Lux has launched various modernization initiatives, such as the creation of an electronic interface for TARIC, the simplification and alignment of Customs procedures with an economic impact, the inclusion of supply chain security and the Authorized Economic Operator concept in the Community Customs Code, the proposal for a modernized Community Customs Code, as well as the decision on a paperless environment for Customs and trade.  During his 25 years with the European Commission, he has chaired meetings and has represented the Commission in the Council meetings.

Michael Lux lectures regularly (inter alia at Muenster University and the Hamburg Customs Academy) and provides capacity building on Customs VAT and international trade law.  He has published numerous articles, commentaries and books, including “The Harmonized System” (1986, Cologne), the “Guide to Community Customs legislation” (2002, Brussels, 2009, Cologne), “Customs and VAT” (2014, Cologne), and the “Guide to the Union Customs Code” (2017, Weiden).  He is involved in training programmes for economic operators and Customs officials, and has lectured in Customs seminars throughout the world.  Since February 2012 he has been working as an attorney in Brussels in the area of Customs, VAT and international trade law.

Michael Lux has been involved in training and development work for the German Development Agency (GIZ) and the European Commission, inter alia, for ECOWAS and EAC, as well as national projects in Egypt, Malawi, Mali, Montenegro, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Zimbabwe.  This work has included the topics of implementation of a Customs union and of the Trade Facilitation Agreement.

Darlan F. Martí has worked, since December 2009, as a trade policy specialist at the Market Access Division of the World Trade Organization (WTO).  He currently serves as Secretary of the WTO Committee on Rules of Origin and, in that capacity, supports the work of that Committee by undertaking research, and drafting briefs and summaries on all topics related to rules of origin - both preferential and non-preferential.  He assisted WTO Members in the negotiation of the 2013 and 2015 Ministerial Decisions on Rules of Origin for Least Developed Countries (Bali and Nairobi Decisions).  He also works in other areas such as trade facilitation, WTO schedules of concessions, tariffs and non-tariff barriers and, more generally speaking, market access issues.  Before joining the WTO, Mr. Martí worked at the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and at the South Centre.

Mr. Martí is a Brazilian national and was educated in law at the University of Harvard, US (Executive Education), University of Cambridge, UK (Master of Law, LL.M), and University of Grenoble, France (B.A. in International Law).

Mr. Kunio Mikuriya has been Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO) since 1 January 2009. He provides leadership and executive management for the global Customs community’s priorities, including developing global Customs instruments, standards, and tools; securing and facilitating global trade; realizing revenues; building Customs-business partnerships; and delivering capacity building in support of Customs reform and modernization.　 　

Prior to joining the WCO, he worked for Japan's Ministry of Finance for 25 years. During his career with the Ministry, Mr. Mikuriya occupied a variety of senior posts, which have given him broad experience and knowledge in Customs, trade, development, budget, and financial policies. He served as Director of Enforcement where he led efforts to fight illicit trade, then as Director of Research and International Affairs paving the way for the conclusion of the first regional trade agreement for Japan, and then as a Counsellor in the Tariff and Customs Bureau. He also served as Director of Salaries and Allowances to coordinate remuneration levels for the entire government workforce, and as the Budget Controller for Foreign Affairs, Official Aid, International Trade and Industry, in the Budget Bureau. In addition, he spent time as a Counsellor at the Japanese Mission to the WTO in Geneva and participated in the GATT Uruguay Round trade negotiations. 　

Mr. Mikuriya has a degree in law from the University of Tokyo and a PhD in international relations from the University of Kent.

Mondher Mimouni is Chief of ITC’s Trade and Market Intelligence section.  He previously worked for several years as a Senior Market Analyst.  Mr. Mimouni has extensive experience in coordinating and implementing large market intelligence projects, comprising the building and maintenance of ITC’s market analysis tools, the realization of cross-country business surveys on non-tariff measures, and the development of methodologies to assess multilateral and regional market access issues, trade negotiations and export competitiveness, among others.  Mr. Mimouni has also contributed to a variety of joint market access analysis projects by ITC, UNCTAD, and the WTO, including World Tariff Profile, the World Economic Forum Enabling Trade Report, MDG Gap task force, and the multi-agency initiative on the collection, classification, and analysis of non-tariff measures.  Mr. Mimouni holds an MPhil equivalent in Development Economics from the Economic University of Montpellier, France, and a MSc in Agricultural Policy and Development Administration from the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Studies (CIHEAM-Montpellier).  He is a native Arabic and French speaker, perfectly fluent in English.

Stefan Moser is a lawyer with over 20 years’ experience working on trade issues in Government and as independent consultant.  At the crossroads of growing global trade integration, he worked in Swiss Government for WTO and free trade negotiations, especially on trade in goods, Customs dismantling and rules of origin.  He also worked in and with governments, especially the EU, on the general system of preferences in favour of developing countries (GSP).  In the WTO, he chaired the Committee on Rules of Origin and, in parallel, the Technical Committee on Rules of Origin at the World Customs Organization.  He led the Swiss negotiating team for trade in goods issues in a number of EFTA-third country agreements (i.e. Lebanon, Singapore, Egypt).  He also led the organization of Ministerial economic missions to Algeria, Egypt and South Africa.  As a consultant, he travelled to several Asian countries, the Middle East and Africa, especially leading a two-and-a-half year EU-funded project for the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply in Amman, Jordan.  He has published handbooks on rules of origin, and contributed to a handbook on international trade law, published by the International Trade Centre, Berne.  He holds a degree as attorney at law from the Supreme Court of the Canton of Berne.

Eckart Naumann is an independent economist and an Associate of the Trade Law Centre (Tralac). His work has covered a range of industries and subject matters, mostly relating to international trade, while much focus has been on rules of origin, including those of various current and developing intra-African agreements as well as agreements with the EU (Cotonou, EPAs, etc.).  He has assisted regional African communities and a number of individual countries on rules of origin, especially in their preparations for negotiating revised rules of origin, and in technical capacity building and sensitization workshops for stakeholders covering the private sector, Customs bodies, trade ministries and regional secretariats. His work has taken him to 30 African countries, and others in Europe, Asia and North America. Ongoing consulting work for the private sector includes rules of origin-related strategy and technical assistance.  In the run-up to and preparation for the EPAs, he was part of the ‘ACP Expert Group on rules of origin’. He holds an undergraduate business degree in economics and financial accounting, and a post-graduate (MCom) degree in economics from the University of Cape Town.

Brian Staples is President of Trade Facilitation Services (TFS: www.tradefacilitationservices.com), an Ottawa- based consulting group, and has been providing a wide range of multinational clients with effective market access strategies and solutions for over 30 years.  TFS services include technical trade fundamentals, with a particular focus on all aspects of rules of origin, and related fields such as Customs procedures, Customs verification audits and pre-audits, valuation, duty and tax deferral programmes, and the Harmonized System of Classification, combined with significant activity in trade policy matters including trade facilitation.  Mr. Staples is also the Founding Director of the Origin Institute (www.theorigininstitute.com) and, in addition to resolving trade problems for private sector clients, has also worked on a wide range of trade, Customs and origin-related technical assistance and capacity-building development projects around the world for various international and regional institutions, including the Inter-American Development Bank, GIZ, and the Canadian International Development Agency.  Mr. Staples is a longstanding member of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and provides origin input to the International Chamber of Commerce - Commission on Customs and Trade Facilitation (Paris – France).

Gail W. Strickler is the President of Global Trade at Brookfield Associates, LLC., a consulting group that helps organizations, governments and businesses develop and coordinate their global trade policy. 

Ms. Strickler served as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Textiles and Apparel from 2009 through the completion of the TPP in October 2015.  

She was the lead negotiator for the United States for apparel and textiles in the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) and TTIP (Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership).

Prior to joining U.S.T.R., Ms. Strickler served as a Director of the Institute for Textile and Apparel Product Safety and Sustainability (I.T.A.P.S.) at Philadelphia University (the former Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science), where she developed sustainability and environmental strategy programmes for brands and retailers.

Ms. Strickler worked for Saxon Textile Corp from 1980 – 2007, serving ultimately as its President and CEO until it was acquired by Patriarch Group in 2007 and became a division of Duro Textile LLC., where she served as VP of the Global Apparel Division. 

Ms. Strickler served as President of the Textiles Distributors Association (T.D.A.) for five years.  She served on the Board of Directors of the National Council of Textile Organizations from 2004-2006 as a member of its Trade Policy Committee.  She was a board member for the USDA Cotton Board from 2002 – 2008, serving as Chairman of the Textile Research Committee.  She served on the Board of Directors at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology’s (F.I.T.) Education Foundation from 2002, and on its executive committee from 2005, until joining U.S.T.R. 

Gabrielle Tramby works with the Australian Trusted Trader policy section in the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP), and is responsible for policy development and international agreements related to the Australia’s Authorized Economic Operator programme. Prior to this role she was the DIBP lead negotiator for the Rules of Origin and Customs Procedures chapters for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement, and the DIBP origin policy lead for Australia’s trade agreements.

Ms. Tramby joined the public service in 2009, where she worked on domestic environmental policy for the Australian Government and CSIRO – Australia’s leading scientific research institute.  Ms. Tramby has since developed expertise in policy and regulatory reform in a range of diverse roles in DIBP, and in the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service.  Prior to joining the public service, Ms. Tramby worked in the private sector, delivering engaging science programmes through non-governmental organizations. 

Ms. Tramby holds a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Arts from the Australian National University, and a Bachelor of Teaching from the University of Tasmania.

Rodolfo Vilches Velasco is Head of Origin Division, Customs Technique Sub-Directorate, at the Chilean National Customs Service.

He has almost 20 years of experience in macroeconomic analysis, international trade studies, and negotiating Free Trade Agreements (FTA) on Rules of Origin, Specific Rules of Origin and Accumulation of Origin.

Between April 2007 and March 2016, Rodolfo Andres Vilches worked in the International Economic Affairs Directorate (DIRECON) for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in charge of negotiating the Rules of Origin chapters in agreements such as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), Pacific Alliance, FTA Chile-Hong Kong, FTA Chile-Vietnam, FTA Chile-Thailand, and updating the Chile-MERCOSUR, Chile-India, Chile-EU, Chile-EFTA and Chile-Canada agreements, among others. He was responsible for updating Specific Rules of Origin and Extended Accumulation of Origin. In addition, he served as an advisor in the North America department and WTO department in charge of implementing Chile's agreements with North America, and the NAMA and Agriculture WTO negotiations, respectively.

Between June 2000 and March 2007, he served as an advisor to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), analysing, coordinating and preparing macroeconomic and international trade studies based on the analysis of indicators, statistical series, and international goods classifications (HS, SITC, ISIC). During this time, he also contributed to many publications, such as "The Millennium Development Goals: A Look from Latin America and the Caribbean", "Evaluation of Sustainability in Latin America and the Caribbean", "Financing for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, from Monterrey to Johannesburg", "Measuring Potential GDP and the Productivity Gap in Brazil, 1980-2002", "Foreign Direct Investment and Agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1990-2000".

Between January and May 2000, he served as a consultant for the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Cooperation (IICA) of the Organization of American States (OAS). He participated in the publication of "The Panorama of Agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1990-2000", and "Measurement of the Quality of Employment in Brazil, 1990-2000".

Rodolfo Andres Vilches has a Bachelor of Business Management (Central University of Chile), and a Master's Degree in Finance (University of Chile).