Posted: 12:53 am ET
On September 9, President Trump announced his intent to nominate former EB Bureau DAS Manisha Singh to be Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs (EB). The WH released the following bio:
Manisha Singh of Florida to be Assistant Secretary of State, Economic and Business Affairs. Ms. Singh is Chief Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor to U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan. She is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs and has served as a senior aide to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Ms. Singh’s private sector experience includes practicing law at multinational law firms and working in-house at an investment bank. She earned an LL.M. in International Legal Studies from the American University Washington College of Law, a J.D. from the University of Florida College of Law and a B.A. from the University of Miami at the age of 19. In addition, she studied at the University of Leiden Law School in the Netherlands. She is licensed to practice law in Florida, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia and speaks fluent Hindi.
The nominee was previously the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Trade Policy and Programs at the State Department. Her archived 2001-2009 state.gov bio includes more details:
She supervises four offices in the Bureau: Multilateral Trade Affairs; Bilateral Trade Affairs; Agriculture, Biotechnology and Textile Trade Affairs; and Intellectual Property Enforcement, with staff totaling over 50 people. She is responsible for developing and promoting trade policy within the foreign policy context. Her prior Department experience includes serving as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs. In this position, she was the key liaison on various issues to U.S. international organization missions in New York, Geneva, Paris, Vienna and Rome.
Before joining the Administration, she served as Deputy Chief Counsel to the Republican staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (2003-2007), working for Chairman/Ranking Member Senator Richard Lugar. There, she was responsible for international trade, economic and development matters, including treaties, free trade agreements, OPIC and WTO issues. Her duties also included confirmations of U.S. ambassadors and administration officials as well as oversight of U.S. government participation in entities such as the OECD and APEC. Examples of her work include several tax treaties, bilateral investment treaties and trade legislation including the bill granting PNTR to Ukraine, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which created a platform for trade and capacity building in sub-Saharan Africa, the United States Direct Investment Act, which was designed to promote the U.S. as a destination for foreign investment, and the Sanctions Policy Reform Act, which provided guidelines for the imposition of unilateral economic sanctions. She also managed passage of Senator Lugar’s World Intellectual Property Day resolution, and was responsible for global IP and pharmaceutical issues.
Her prior Capitol Hill experience includes serving as counsel to the Republican staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, where she managed the committee’s international commerce jurisdiction. Before working for the U.S. Congress, she was a practicing attorney at the law firms of Squire Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P. in the Corporate and Capital Markets group and Reed Smith LLP, where she represented privately held and publicly listed clients in domestic and cross border transactions. She also spent time at Stewart and Smith, Inc., where she advised financial investment firms regarding domestic and international legal issues impacting the market price of publicly held securities.
Ms. Singh completed a Master of Laws (LLM) in International Legal Studies, with concentration in international trade, at the American University Washington College of Law. While completing this degree, she worked in the Office of General Counsel at the United States International Trade Commission. After law school, she served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Edward F. Threadgill, Jr., then Chief Judge of the State of Florida Second District Court of Appeal. Her educational background includes earning a Juris Doctor (JD) from the University of Florida College of Law at the age of 22, and completing a Certificate at the University of Leiden in The Netherlands. She earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) with honors at the University of Miami at the age of 19. She speaks fluent Hindi and conversational Spanish. She is admitted to practice law in Florida, the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania. She is a member of the South Asian Bar Association and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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