Jonathan Fried

In addition to serving as the “Sherpa” for Prime Minister Trudeau, in his Deputy Minister-level position working with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister of International Trade he carries a horizontal mandate to ensure coherent policy positions and government-wide strategic planning in international economic organizations and fora regarding e.g., Canada-Asia and other international trade and economic issues. He served as Canada’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO from 2012-2017, where he played a key role in multilateral trade negotiations, including as Chair of the WTO’s General Council in 2014 and chair of the Dispute Settlement Body in 2013. He was the co-Chair of the G20’s Trade and Investment Working Group with China in 2015, and the “Friend of the Chair” for Germany in 2016. Formerly Canada’s Ambassador to Japan ; Executive Director for Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean at the IMF ; Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister ; Senior Assistant Deputy Minister for the Department of Finance and Canada’s G7 and G20 Finance Deputy. Mr. Fried has also served as Associate Deputy Minister ; Assistant Deputy Minister for Trade, Economic and Environmental Policy ; Chief Negotiator on China’s WTO accession ; Director General for Trade Policy ; and chief counsel for NAFTA. Mr. Fried is a former member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Trade and Investment, and of the Steering Committee of the e15 initiative on Strengthening the Global Trading System. He serves on the Advisory Boards of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, the World Trade Symposium, and the Central and East European Law Institute. Mr. Fried was named in 2015 as the inaugural recipient of the Public Sector Lawyer Award by the Canadian Council on International Law to honour his service and contribution to public international law.