Jean Heilman Grier is the International Trade Principal at Djaghe, LLC., where she advises businesses, organizations, and governments on a wide variety of international procurement and trade issues. Her expertise includes global procurement, trade policy, U.S. trade laws, international trade agreements, and trade negotiations. She is the author of The International Procurement System: Liberalization & Protectionism (Washington: Dalston Press, 2022) and numerous other publications on international procurement and other trade topics. Since 2013, she has written the blog, Perspectives on Trade (http://perspectivesontrade.com).

Ms. Grier has more than 35 years of experience in international trade as a trade negotiator, lawyer, adviser, and consultant. In the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), she served as Senior Procurement Negotiator. In that role, she was the U.S. negotiator for the World Trade Organization’s Government Procurement Agreement and procurement chapters in numerous free trade agreements across the globe, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership. 

Prior to joining USTR, Ms. Grier served as Senior Counsel for Trade Agreements at the U.S. Department of Commerce. In that position, she engaged in a broad range of international trade issues, including the negotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement and numerous bilateral agreements with Japan. She also participated in anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations, as well as investigations conducted under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.

Before entering the U.S. government, Ms. Grier was an Assistant Attorney General with the State of Minnesota. With that Office, she served as Chief of the Public Utilities Division, representing the State in electric, gas, and telecommunications rate cases, Chief of the Consumer Protection Division, litigating consumer fraud cases, and as the first attorney for the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board.

Ms. Grier received law degrees from the University of Minnesota (J.D.) and the University of Washington (LL.M) and an undergraduate degree from South Dakota State University. As a Fulbright Scholar at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, she conducted research on Japanese administrative law. She is a member of the District of Colombia Bar. 

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