BC Law prof named to Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee

Boston College Law Professor and Dean's Distinguished Scholar David A. Wirth has been appointed to the Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee, which advises the U.S. Trade Representative, a member of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet.

The 18-member TEPAC provides general policy counsel to Ambassador Katherine Tai—the nation’s principal trade advisor, negotiator, and spokesperson on U.S. trade policy—on matters that have a significant environmental impact. Tai’s office is responsible for developing and coordinating U.S. international trade, commodity, and direct investment policy, and overseeing negotiations with other countries.

Wirth is one of just three academic representatives on the committee, and one of only two with an environmental law focus; other members represent environmental interest groups, agriculture, consumer groups, services, non-government organizations and those with expertise in trade and the environment.

Wirth, who teaches primarily in the field of public international law, is an expert in international environmental law, an area in which he has worked and practiced for more than two decades.  Prior to his academic career, he was senior attorney and co-director of the International Program at the Washington, D.C. office of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit public interest law firm specializing in environmental issues. While there, he worked on a variety of international environmental issues, including environmental reform of World Bank and regional development banks, the “greenhouse” effect, Soviet and eastern European environmental issues, stratospheric ozone depletion, and exports of hazardous substances.

Wirth has also been attorney-adviser for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State, where he had principal responsibility for all international environmental issues, including exports of hazardous substances and technologies, acid rain, and stratospheric ozone depletion. In his positions at the Department of State and NRDC, Wirth had extensive experience in multilateral negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe, and other international organizations.