María Luisa Pagán

María L. Pagán has spent almost three decades as a trade lawyer in the U.S. government. She is currently the Deputy General Counsel at the Office of the United States Trade Representative. In that role, she provides legal advice to senior USTR officials on all legal aspects regarding trade negotiations, implementation of trade agreements, and trade related legislation and regulations. She has been the lead U.S. attorney for numerous trade agreement negotiations. She was the lead lawyer for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, handling the legal aspects of the negotiation, as well as the implementation package that passed Congress in early 2020. Before becoming Deputy General Counsel, she specialized in providing legal advice on services, government procurement, and the section 421 country-specific safeguard, and also litigated several disputes before the WTO. Prior to joining USTR in 2003, Ms. Pagán worked as an attorney advisor in the Office of the Chief Counsel for International Commerce at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Ms. Pagán was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and resides in Maryland. She received her law degree and a Master’s in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and a B.A. from Tufts University.