Trade & investment

Luis de la Calle appointed Vice-Chair of Commission on Trade and Investment Policy

  • 20 February 2012
ICC in Latin America

ICC is pleased to announce the appointment of Luis de la Calle as the incoming Vice-Chair of the ICC Commission on Trade and Investment.

Mr de la Calle is currently the managing director and founding partner of De la Calle, Madrazo, and Mancera, a consulting firm specialized in economy, regulatory processes and matters related to international trade. He is also President for Latin American at Hill and Knowlton Strategies and is a member of the ICC-World Economic Forum B20 Task Force on Trade and Investment and a member of ICC Mexico.

“This commission plays an important role in determining trade and investment policy from a business perspective and I look forward to helping to achieve its mandate of shaping the multilateral trade policy agenda, particularly now that opening trade can make a positive contribution to the global economy,” Mr de la Calle said.

As trade policy is consistently a top priority for global business, the Commission on Trade and Investment Policy represents ICC’s main working body on multilateral trade and investment policy issues. The commission’s constructive role in representing business views is built upon ICC’s long history of authoritative involvement in international trade and investment policy.

Prior to joining the private sector, Mr de la Calle served as Undersecretary for International Trade Negotiations in Mexico’s Ministry of the Economy, a position to which he was appointed by both former Mexican presidents Vicente Fox and Ernesto Zedillo. In this capacity he negotiated several of Mexico’s bilateral free trade agreements, as well as regional and multilateral agreements with the World Trade Organization. During his term as Undersecretary he was a member of the Board at Pemex Exploration and Production and at the national forest commission; he was also executive secretary of the national foreign investment commission.

“We look forward to benefitting from Mr de la Calle’s extensive experience in international trade negotiations as ICC embarks on a global initiative to provide business recommendations to governments on a multilateral trade agenda for the 21st century,” said ICC Secretary General Jean-Guy Carrier.

Before he took office as Undersecretary, Luis de la Calle served as Trade and NAFTA Minister at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C. During his term he was instrumental in crafting and implementing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Mr de la Calle also worked at the World Bank as Country Economist for the Czech and Slovak Republics, Poland, and the former Zaire.

Among other organizations, he is a member of the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations (COMEXI), and the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness. Mr de la Calle currently serves as a member of the Board of Aeromexico.

For more information on the work of this commission please visit the ICC Commission on Trade and Investment Policy.