President Trump has picked an assistant U.S. Trade Representative to serve as the agency’s chief agricultural negotiator. Julie Callahan, AUSTR for agricultural affairs and commodity policy, was announced as the nominee for the deputy USTR slot on Thursday. Callahan has been with the agency since 2016, serving first as senior director for agricultural affairs, then deputy AUSTR. She was promoted to AUSTR in 2020.
Dr. Callahan previously served as a Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative and Senior Director in the USTR Agriculture Office, focusing on strategic engagement in UN organizations, EU, UK, Turkey, and Eastern European Sanitary and Phytosanitary Issues and agriculture-related Technical Barriers to Trade.
Prior to joining USTR, Dr. Callahan held senior leadership positions in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, executing strategic and operational planning, aligning FDA analytical and policy approaches to preempt or resolve regulatory issues that arise in international trade, and promoting U.S. public health objectives in US trade positions, including in WTO SPS and TBT Committees, trade negotiations, and FTA implementation. She has also served in the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, and the American Chemical Society.
Dr. Callahan earned her doctoral degree in Marine Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts and a Bachelor of Science in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science from MIT.
