P Welles Orr

Welles Orr serves as Senior International Trade Advisor, with more than twenty years of experience in international trade policy, national security and foreign affairs. Mr. Orr’s practice focuses on international trade policy, trade and foreign direct investment agreements, market access, dispute settlement, free trade agreements (FTA), the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and trade law and policy implementation. Before joining Miller & Chevalier, Mr. Orr was Senior Vice President in the Trade, Investment and Global Markets Practice Group of Fleishman-Hillard Governmental Relations, where he assisted domestic and international clients on U.S. trade, investment and related foreign policy issues and strategies.  Prior to that, he co-founded and managed Potomac Research Group, LLC, a government relations consulting firm specializing in trade, tax and technology policy matters for corporate and trade association clients with interests before the executive branch and the U.S. Congress. Before joining USTR in 1989, Mr. Orr served in the Department of State as Senior Advisor and Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs.  He also managed the Bureau’s legislative and public affairs activities and served as the principal liaison with members and staff of the House and Senate foreign relations committees and the Appropriations Foreign Operations Subcommittees providing briefings on Administration policy developments and economic and security assistance matters throughout the 27-country region.  Mr. Orr also served on Capitol Hill as a Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator H. John Heinz (R-PA), and U.S. Representative William S. Moorhead (D-PA).  He also served in state government as a Special Assistant to Governor Dick Thornburgh, (R-PA) and the Economic Development Committee of the Cabinet in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Mr. Orr earned his master’s degree in International Security Studies and Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh, and a certificate in International Studies from Warnborough College, Oxford.  He received his undergraduate degree from Denison University.