Outreach Workshop on International Trade,
NAFTA & the Environment
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Lubar Commons (7200 Law), UW Law School
Agenda
2:45-3:00
Registration
3:00-3:05
Welcome
Sumudu Atapattu
Associate Director, Global Legal Studies Center, UW Law School
3:05 – 3:30
“Business and Legal Aspects of Investment under NAFTA”
Erik Ibele
Attorney, Neider & Boucher SC, Madison& Adjunct Professor, UW Law
School
3:30- 4:00
“Environmental Protection under NAFTA”
Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger
Director, Center for International Sustainable Development Law,
Montreal, Canada
4:00- 4:15
Q&A Session
4:15-4:20
Break
4:20-4:45
“The Impact of International Trade on Wisconsin”
Susan Dragotta
Outreach Consultant, Wisconsin Department of Commerce
4:45-5:15
“Impact of NAFTA on Trade and Investment in Mexico”
Dr Gustavo Vega-Canovas
Director, Center for International Studies, El Colegio de Mexico
Mexico City, Mexico
5:15-5:30
Q&A Session
5:30-6:00
Reception
Biographies of speakers
Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger is the Director of the Centre for International Sustainable
Development Law (CISDL) in Canada, and a Fellow of the Lauterpacht Research Centre for
International Law at Cambridge University Faculty of Law, UK. She is also the head of
International Affairs for the Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources. She has many publications to
her credit: these include SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT LAW: PRINCIPLES, PRACTICES AND PROSPECTS
(Oxford University Press, 2004) with A. Khalfan; SUSTAINABLE JUSTICE: RECONCILING ECONOMIC,
SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL LAW (Martinus Nijhoff, 2004) with former Vice-President of the
International Court of Justice, Judge C. G. Weeramantry; and SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN WORLD
TRADE LAW (Kluwer Law International, 2005) with Dr. M. Gehring.
She serves on the boards of the International Law Association (Canadian Branch) and the
International Trade and Investment Centre (Conference Board of Canada), as the Canadian expert
representative on the International Law Association’s (ILA) Committee on International Law on
Sustainable Development, and as a Chair of the IUCN Environmental Law Commissions’ Expert
Group on Trade and Environment Law. She also chairs a joint CISDL – ILA – IDLO Partnership
on International Law for Sustainable Development, launched at the World Summit for Sustainable
Development. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, is profiled by the United Nations
Environment Programme in their global ‘Who’s Who of Women and the Environment’ and has
held several international awards including a Chevening and a Social Sciences & Humanities
Research Council (SSHRC) Fellowship for a Ph.D. in International Law at Oxford University
(Exeter College). She holds a Masters of Environmental Management in Economics, Environmental
Law and Policy from the Yale University, degrees in Civil Law and Common Law from McGill
University, Canada and a Bachelors of Arts Honors degree. She speaks and writes fluent French,
English and Spanish as well as intermediate German and Portuguese.
Susan Dragotta is the Southeastern Wisconsin International Trade Consultant and Latin America
Specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Commerce. She works with local companies
interested in expanding their export sales. Susan joined the Wisconsin Department of
Commerce in 1999 after working in international business development for several Milwaukeearea companies. Susan has traveled extensively in Latin America and Europe. Her Spanish
language capability has made Latin American business development her focus, in both her
private and public sector positions.
Susan is currently co-chair of the Education Committee for the Milwaukee World Trade
Association, and Vice Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Global Education and Trade
Center at Waukesha County Technical College. She has taught courses in global business for
the University of Phoenix and Ottawa University, and is a frequent guest speaker at UWMilwaukee and Marquette. She has provided training to her counterparts in other states
through the State International Development Organization. Susan has an undergraduate degree
from UW-Madison and a graduate degree in International Business Management from UWMilwaukee.
Erik Ibele joined Neider & Boucher, S.C., Attorneys & Counselors, Madison in 1981 and his areas
of expertise include Business Transactions, Intellectual Property and Immigration. He focuses on
Copyright and Trademark, Software and Technology Licensing, International Transactions and
Business Immigration. He teaches International Trade Law at UW Law School as an adjunct
professor. He has a J.D. Degree from University of Wisconsin Law School and carried out
Graduate Study in Law, at the University of Bonn, Germany (Comparative Law and Private
International Law). He also has a B.A. in Political Science from the Lawrence University.
He has served on the U. S. Peace Corps in Afghanistan (1973-75) and speaks German and
Pushtu. He considers teaching at UW Law School his “proudest professional achievement” and
pro bono representation of clients seeking political asylum in the U.S. his “proudest community
accomplishment.”
Gustavo Vega-Cánovas is Director of the Center for International Studies at the Colegio de
México, where he is also a professor. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from
the Yale University, where he specialized in international relations, comparative politics and
international political economy. He is an expert in U.S.-Mexican economic relations and North
American integration, having studied and written extensively on the topic for the past 15 years.
His current line of research looks at the implications of 9/11 on the future of NAFTA and his
recent publications include: “Unfair Trade Practices and Dispute Resolution Mechanisms in Free
Trade Agreements of the Americas: The Experience of North America and Chile” (2001, in
Spanish), "NAFTA and the EU: Toward Convergence?" (an edited volume by Jeffrey J. Anderson
1999), and an edited volume produced from two conferences cosponsored by the Watson
Institute and the Luso-American Foundation in Lisbon. Professor Vega-Cánovas has been a
member of five binational panels under Chapter 19 of the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA). He is a member of the National System of Researchers (SNI) of Mexico's
Education Ministry.