This article is more than 3 years old
Ambassador
|
Mathias Francke SchnarbachFrancke was the Permanent Representative of Chile to the World Trade Organisation until June 2022. He was also the Coordinator of the WTO Structured Discussions on Investment Facilitation for Development since March 2020. Prior to his appointment in Geneva, he was the Director General for Multilateral Economic Affairs in the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in such capacity APEC SOM Chair during Chile's APEC 2019 year.
Between April 2014 and April 2018 he was the Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Chile in the United Kingdom and before that Director for Bilateral Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Previously he was Chief of Cabinet and senior advisor to the Chilean Vice Minister of Trade. As a Foreign Service officer since 1989, he has been posted to the Economic Section of the Chilean Embassy in Washington DC (1992 to 1996) and the Permanent Mission to the World Trade Organization in Geneva (2000 to 2005 and 2006 to 2010 the latter as Deputy Chief of Mission).Back in capital he has worked in the America's Bureau of the Trade Promotion Bureau –ProChile-, and in the office of the Director General both in the General Directorate for International Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2005 after returning from Geneva he was asked to establish and implement a Dispute Settlement Unit in charge of the defense of the country's trade interest in bilateral and WTO disputes.
Mr. Francke is a lawyer from the Catholic University of Chile and has a graduate degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is frequently invited to give lectures and to participate in seminars and workshops in the areas of Trade Policy particularly in dispute settlement, trade and environment, TBT and trade remedies. He has served as a panelist in WTO cases US – Gambling, Korea – Measures affecting the importation of beef from Canada, EU – Antidumping measures against biodiesel from Argentina and EU – Antidumping measures against biodiesel from Indonesia. In October 2021, he was the discussant at Korea´s Trade Policy Review in the WTO.