Posted December 20, 2013
President Barack Obama nominated Darci Vetter to be the
new chief agricultural negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade
Representative, succeeding Ambassador Islam Siddiqui, according to an article
by Agri-Pulse available here.
Vetter has been Deputy Under Secretary for Farm and
Foreign Agricultural Services at USDA since 2010. From 2005-2007, she was an International
Trade Advisor on the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. From 2001 to 2007, she worked for the Office
of the U.S. Trade Representative, as Director for Agricultural Affairs and the
Director for Sustainable Development.
Vetter received a B.A. from Drake University and an
M.P.A. and Certificate in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy from the
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton
University.
Mary Kay Thatcher, director of congressional relations
at the American Farm Bureau Federation said “she couldn’t think of anybody
who’d be better for the job,” according to a Feedstuffs article available here. Thatcher said, “She’s really bright and very
articulate…She’s also a big picture thinker and is really good at communicating
with people who don’t deal with trade on a daily basis.”
Julius Schaaf, USGC chairman, said Vetter’s “background
in agricultural trade issues and USDA experience will be valuable for U.S.
agriculture trade interests.”
For more information on agricultural trade, please
visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
