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Expert Bio
Jennifer A. Hillman is a senior fellow for trade and international political economy at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), specializing in U.S. trade policy, the law and politics of the World Trade Organization (WTO), international organizations, and Brexit.
Hillman is a professor of practice at the Georgetown University Law Center, teaching the lead courses in international business and international trade, along with a practicum on international trade and investment law that gave students the opportunity to resolve real-world problems for developing country governments and a wide variety of NGOs. She recently published Getting to Brexit: Legal Aspects of the Process of the UK’s Withdrawal from the EU (IIEL 2018) and Legal Aspects of Brexit: Implications of the United Kingdom’s Decision to Withdraw from the European Union (IIEL 2017). She also co-authored the leading casebook on trade, International Trade Law, 3rd ed., Wolters Kluwer (2016). Additional writings have covered climate change, carbon taxes, the trade war with China, and reforms to the WTO.
Hillman has had a distinguished career in public service. In 2012, she completed her term as one of seven members serving on the WTO's highest court, its Appellate Body. Hillman also has in-depth experience adjudicating antidumping, countervailing duty, patent and safeguards cases along with conducting numerous studies of the economics of trade policy and trade agreements as a result of her service as a Commissioner at the United States International Trade Commission. Through her work as the General Counsel at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Hillman was involved in all litigation matters in which the United States was a party or third party in disputes before panels of the NAFTA or the WTO and in addressing the intersection between trade policy, trade law, and foreign policy. She negotiated bilateral agreements with forty-five countries while serving as USTR’s Ambassador and Chief Textiles Negotiator and was the legislative director and counsel to U.S. Senator Terry Sanford of North Carolina before joining USTR.
Hillman was a partner in the law firm of Cassidy Levy Kent, a senior transatlantic fellow for the German Marshall Fund of the United States, president of the Trade Policy Forum, and a member of the selection panel for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation. She serves on the board of visitors at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University and is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and Duke University. In 2021, she was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Women in International Trade.
Affiliations:
- Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy, board of visitors
- Georgetown University Law Center, professor from practice
- International Capital Strategies, senior advisor
- Tech for Campaigns, host committee member
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An imperfect U.S.-EU deal could set the stage for decarbonizing global steel and aluminum production—but only if negotiators can avoid certain pitfalls.
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Previous attempts at economic coordination have floundered, but focusing on a limited set of strategic concerns may allow the Trade and Technology Council to be more successful.
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If properly harnessed, private capital can help the United States meet global infrastructure needs and compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
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China's decision to stop funding coal plants abroad is an important step, but real progress will require phasing out coal at home.
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Highlighting the Belt and Road Initiative’s problematic labor practices, and pressing China to tighten regulations further, is an important step toward improving the human outcomes associated with BRI.
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Europe holds the key to President Biden's trade agenda.
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A comprehensive U.S.-Taiwan trade agreement would benefit U.S. companies, bolster Taiwan's economic security, and underscore Washington's interest in cross-Strait stability.
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In addition to undermining European unity, BRI may also work to cleave the transatlantic alliance. To head off these dilemmas, Europe will need to provide clear alternatives to Chinese infrastructure spending.
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To compete with China's Belt and Road, the U.S. should focus on R&D, immigration, technology, and trade.
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BRI's fossil fuel investments will make combatting climate change more difficult. The U.S. needs to offer developing nations an alternative means of acquiring clean energy.
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As the United States embarks on an era of great power competition with China, it is incumbent on U.S. policymakers to better understand BRI and the strategic and political implications of the initiative.
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The United States should recognize, and attempt to seize, the opportunity on WTO Appellate Body reform being offered by the European Union.
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The only way to take effective and far-reaching action to combat climate change while also preserving American competitive advantage is the imposition of a carbon tax with border adjustments.
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Concern that China's subsidies caused a flood of cheap imports was what started the U.S.-China trade war in the first place, but subsidies were not mentioned even once when President Trump announced "phase one" of a trade deal with China. A genuine solution to the China trade problem will require forcefully addressing the unmentioned subsidy issues.
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Are the provisions of the Trump administration’s rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—set forth in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) enforceable? As written, the answer is no.