Echandi Roberto

Ambassador Echandi undertook his doctoral and LL.M. studies in International Trade Law at the University of Michigan School of Law at Ann Arbor, Michigan; his M.Phil. in Latin American studies with emphasis in economic integration at the University of Oxford; Licenciado en Derecho, at the University of Costa Rica and specialised negotiation courses at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University. Before being appointed Ambassador of Costa Rica to the EC in early 2007, he was the Program Director of the Small Economy Trade & Investment Center (SETIC), Academia de Centroamerica, in San Jose, Costa Rica. Since 1993 Ambassador Echandi has also been Professor of International Trade and Investment Law at the Diplomatic Institute "Manuel María Peralta" of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica. From October 2002 until January 2005, he served as Special Adjunct Ambassador for U.S. Trade Affairs. He served as Costa Rica’s lead negotiator in services and investment in the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Amb. Echandi has also been Adjunct Professor of Law, Visiting Scholar and Fellow at the Institute for International Economic Law (IIEL) of the Georgetown University Law Center, in Washington D.C. He has also served as Director-General for International Trade at the Ministry of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica and as legal advisor to the Appellate Body Secretariat of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland. Ambassador Echandi has published widely on the legal and political economy dimensions of investment issues, dispute settlement, trade in services and regional economic integration in the Americas. He has served as a consultant to the OECD, the World Bank, UNCTAD, the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Development Bank and the WTO.