Charlene Barshefsky

Charlene Barshefsky earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin in 1972 and a law degree from the Catholic University of America in 1975, after which she spent 18 years practising law at the Washington firm Steptoe & Johnson, becoming co-head of its international law practice. In 1993 she was recruited by then-U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor as Deputy Trade Representative for Latin America and Asia, becoming Kantor's de facto second-in-command by late 1994; she served as Deputy USTR from 1993 to 1997. She succeeded Kantor as U.S. Trade Representative in 1997, holding the post until 2001.

Barshefsky led the U.S. side of the bilateral negotiations with China on WTO accession. In April 1999, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, during a visit to Washington, tabled an unexpectedly far-reaching package of accession concessions, but the Clinton administration decided not to sign, judging that domestic business, labor, and congressional support had not yet been built and wary of appearing to cave to China — leaving the talks stalled. Over the following six months the U.S. side worked to repair the relationship and bring China back to the table, and on 15 November 1999 Barshefsky signed the China–U.S. bilateral market access agreement in Beijing with Chinese Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Wu Yi, making her the key American figure in advancing China's accession. She subsequently lobbied Congress domestically for passage of the Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) Act, clearing the U.S. legal obstacle to China's formal accession.

After leaving the USTR post, Barshefsky joined WilmerHale in 2001 as a senior international partner, practising there until her retirement in 2021; during this period she served on the boards of Intel, American Express, the Estée Lauder Companies, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and chaired the board of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. She subsequently became chair of Parkside Global Advisors, advising multinational companies on global market access and negotiation strategy.