On the margins of the UN Conference on Trade and Development  (UNCTAD) meetings in Geneva, USCIB Vice President for Trade Services Shaun Donnelly went to the U.S. Mission (i.e. the multilateral US Embassy) to UN agencies for a morning of meetings on October 12. Donnelly, a retired State Department ambassador, had a wide-ranging, hour-long meeting with the U.S. Mission Chargé D’affaires Ted Allegra in the absence of a new U.S. Ambassador (yet to be nominated.)

Donnelly also had a roundtable with U.S. Mission staff managing U.S. participation on a range of UN agencies including the International Labor Organization, World Health Organization, WIPO, Human Rights Commission and the World Trade Organization. They discussed concerns of USCIB and its members on policies, budgets, and business access in several Geneva agencies.

Donnelly noted afterwards, “I really appreciated the opportunity to sit down with U.S. Chargé in Geneva Ted Allegra, an experienced and respected diplomat, and to highlight priorities and policy concerns of our members.”

Donnelly and other USCIB staff routinely stay in close contact with various staffers in the U.S. mission in Geneva. “But the opportunity to voice our key concerns directly to the acting U.S. Ambassador in Geneva was both timely and useful,” he added.