Ignacio Garcia Bercero

Mr Ignacio Garcia Bercero is a director at the Directorate General for Trade of the European Commission (DG TRADE). He currently oversees activities related to the US, Canada and the EU Neighbouring Countries. Mr Garcia Bercero coordinated the work of the EU-US High Level Working Group on Growth and Jobs, which recommended the launch of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. He now acts as the EU Chief Negotiator for this agreement.
Mr Garcia Bercero joined the European Commission in 1987 and has thorough experience in a large number of trade-related policy areas. During the Uruguay Round of multilateral negotiations, he followed, inter alia, negotiations on trade safeguards, GATT articles, functioning of the GATT, as well as talks on trade and environment. In the period leading up to the launch of the WTO Doha Round, he served as coordinator of the EU WTO policy and led the negotiations on trade and competition. He was also posted in the EU Delegation to the United Nations in New York and worked in areas of WTO Dispute Settlement and Trade Barriers Regulation.
More recently, between 2005 and 2011, Mr Garcia Bercero’s field of responsibility included trade-related aspects of sustainable development, as well as bilateral trade relations with South and South-East Asia, Korea, EuroMed and the Middle East countries. As the Chief Negotiator, he led the negotiating process with South Korea and India.
Mr Garcia Bercero authored several papers and publications on the subjects of Trade Laws, GATT and WTO System, Safeguard Measures, Trade and Competition, WTO Dispute Settlement Reform and bilateral dispute settlement rules in European Free Trade Agreements. Mr Garcia Bercero holds a Law Degree from the Faculty of Law of the
Universidad Complutense, Madrid and a Masters of Laws Degree (with Distinction) from University College, London.