Alejandro Jara is Deputy Director-General at the World Trade Organization (2005– present). Born in Chile, he obtained his law degree from the Universidad de Chile in 1973. As a Fulbright scholar he pursued graduate studies at the Law School, University of California at Berkeley. In 1976 he joined the Foreign Service of Chile where he has specialized in trade policy. He served as Counsellor in the Mission of Chile to the GATT (1979–84); Coordinator for Trade Policy Affairs of the Economic System for Latin America (SELA) in Caracas (1987–93); Director for Trade Negotiations (1993–99); Chile’s Senior Official to APEC (1996–97); Deputy Chief negotiator for the Chile–Canada FTA; Chief negotiator for the Chile–Mexico FTA (1997–98); Director General for International Economic Relations (1999–2000); Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Chile to the WTO (2000–05); Chairperson of the Committee on Trade and Environment of the WTO (2001) and of the Negotiating Group of Trade in Services (2002–05).