Donnelly Co-Authors Op-Ed in The Hill on Commercial Diplomacy

USCIB Senior Advisor Shaun Donnelly and his longtime State Department colleague Ambassador (ret.) Tony Wayne recently co-wrote an op-ed in The Hill titled, “Biden’s Trade Policy Needs Effective Commercial Diplomacy.”

Wayne and Donnelly, both retired U.S. ambassadors, ran the State Department’s Economic and Business Bureau in the early 2000s; Wayne served as assistant secretary and Donnelly was his principal deputy assistant secretary.  Their recent op-ed recommends that the new Administration focus on strengthening a government-wide effort to support U.S. companies (and thereby, U.S. workers and localities) to win more business opportunities overseas in order to bolster American revenues, jobs, and global competitiveness across the United States.

According to both, the international competition is fierce, and getting increasingly more fierce every day. “Frankly other governments have upped their games in recent years, so we have some catching up to do,” they argue in the op-ed.

“High-level political support, interagency teamwork, strong Ambassadorial leadership in the field, and in-depth partnership with the U.S. private sector will be essential.”

“Both in our days together at the State Department and now as colleagues in the American Academy of Diplomacy, Ambassador Wayne and I have been working on these important issues of how the U.S. Government can best support U.S. companies and workers, to help them win more deals, contracts and partnerships around the world,” said Donnelly.  “We’ve worked with the Obama and Trump Administrations on these issues and we anticipate engaging actively with the incoming Biden team at key agencies, as well as key players at the White House, on the Hill and beyond.  The U.S. needs to up its game, play stronger offense on international commercial battlefields. I see this work as a natural extension of my earlier work at State and USTR on international economic and trade policy and also of the important work we at USCIB have been doing to support U.S. business.”

Staff Contact:   Shaun Donnelly

Senior Advisor

Until his retirement from USCIB in April 2020, Shaun Donnelly led USCIB’s work on foreign investment policy, treatment of multinational and state-owned enterprises and financial services. In retirement, he now serves as a part-time Senior Advisor to USCIB leadership. A career diplomat in the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Service, Donnelly joined USCIB’s Washington office in 2011 after a thirty-six-year career in U.S. government service. With USCIB, Donnelly became a leading spokesman around the world for U.S. and international business on international investment policy issues.
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