Permanent Representative
Federico Alberto Cuello Camilo
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Federico Alberto Cuello Camilo (Santo Domingo, 1966) is the new Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations in New York. He enjoys the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. He presented his letters of credence to Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General, on 3rd June 2009.
Between January 2005 and April 2009 he was the Dominican Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Belgium, the European Communities, the Czech Republic and the Republic of Poland.
He was also the Dominican Ambassador, Permanent Representative to the European Office of the United Nations and to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland, between March 1999 and August 2002.
He has a Ph. D. in Regional Science and Development Economics (University of Illinois, 1994); an M. A. in Economic Theory and Econometrics (University of Illinois, 1990) and a B. Sc. in Economics, Magna Cum Laude (Technological Institute of Santo Domingo, 1987).
Among his prior official duties since 1986, he served as a Vice-Minister of Economics (1995-1999) and as an Economic Advisor to the Chamber of Deputies (2003-2004).
He has served in the bureau of more than 30 regional groups and collective decision-making bodies in Brussels, Caracas, Geneva, Madrid and Santo Domingo, among which:
·
Chairman
of the Committee of Ambassadors of the Group of Río, Brussels, 2007;
·
Chairman
of the Committee of Ambassadors of the Caribbean Group, Brussels, 2007;
·
Chairman
of the Committee of Ambassadors of the ACP Group, Brussels, 2006;
·
Vice-Chairman
of the Ambassadorial Working Group on the Future of the ACP Group, 2006-2007;
·
Lead Negotiator
on Trade in Services and Investment, as a Member of the Caribbean College of Negotiators for the Regional Economic Partnership Agreement with the EC, 2005-2007.
·
Chairman
of the ACP Group, Geneva, 2002.
·
Chairman
of the Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC) at UNCTAD, Geneva, 2001.
·
First Chairman and Founder
of the GRULAC, International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Geneva, 2001-2002.
·
Chairman
of the GRULAC, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva, 2000.
·
Vice-Chairman
of the International Summit for the Information Society, Geneva, 2001-2002.
·
Vice-Chairman
of the International Conference on Competition Law and Policy at UNCTAD, Geneva, 2000-2005.
·
First Chairman and Founder
of the Paradisus Group with El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the DR, 1999-2002.
·
First Chairman and Founder
of the CARIFORUM Group with the CARICOM Missions to the WTO and Cuba, Haiti and the DR, Geneva, 2000.
·
First Chairman and Founder
of the Group of 5 with Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama which negotiated jointly the accession to the WTO of the People’s Republic of China, Geneva, 2000-2001.
·
First Chairman and Founder
of the Working Group for the Liberalization of Tourism of the World Tourism Organization (WTO/OMT), Madrid, 1999-2002.
·
Chairman
of UNCTAD’s Commission on Trade in Goods, Services and Commodities. Geneva, 1999.
His close links with the United Nations System started in 1986, when he participated as a member of the Dominican team that prepared and implemented the first national study of the Dominican service sector, with technical assistance of UNCTAD. This study was the basis of the Dominican negotiating strategy on trade in services during the Uruguay Round.
After concluding his doctoral studies and concurrently with his official duties, he served as a Project Coordinator for a number of economic reform projects with funding of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), ITU, UNDP, UNCTAD and the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic.
The culmination of this work was the enactment and implementation of new legal and institutional frameworks on trade negotiations, telecommunications, industrial property, copyright, consumer protection and competition policy.
In academia, he was the Director of the School of Economics of his Alma Mater, INTEC (1993-1994). In march 2003, he was recruited as a Research Professor of Economics at the Pontifical Catholic University “Mater et Magistra” (PUCMM, St. Thomas Aquinas Campus), where he lectured on Development Economics (at the advanced undergraduate level) and Economic Policy (at the graduate level) until receiving a special leave without pay to rejoin his country’s diplomatic corps as Ambassador in Brussels.
His research on trade, development and intellectual property have been funded by OXFAM/Intermón (Santo Domingo), Friedrich Ebert Foundation (Santo Domingo and Geneva), Quaker International Affairs Program (QIAP, Ottawa), Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) and International Lawyers and Economists Against Poverty (ILEAP).
He has lectured on these issues to the European Parliament, the EC, MERCOSUR, the Andean Pact, the International Center for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), the Parliament of Surinam, the Canadian, Dominican, Finnish and German Governments, the Latin American Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (ALIFAR), the Federation of European Chambers of Commerce, Oxford University, the Free University of Brussels, the Universities of Antwerp, Leuven, Prague and Warsaw, the Complutense University of Madrid and INTEC.
His experience in trade negotiations started in 1993 during the services negotiations of the Uruguay Round and continued during the ensuing negotiations at the WTO (1995-2002); the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA, 1995-99); the Free Trade Agreement between CARICOM and the DR (1997-98); and the Free Trade Treaty between Central-America and the DR (1997-98).
His views on trade and development have been quoted by the news wires of EFE, AFP, BBC, Inter-Press Service, Reuters, Angola Press and Prensa Latina; by international dailies such as the Wall Street Journal, The Sunday Telegraph (London), Le Monde, Gazeta Mercantil (São Paulo), El Comercio (Lima) and Le Temps (Geneva); by Dominican dailies such as Listín Diario, El Caribe, Hoy, El Nuevo Diario, Diario Libre, Diario@Diario and Clave Digital; and by the broadcasting services of the BBC, Radio France Internationale, Channel 4 (London), Radio Pueblo Nuevo (Spain) and Radio Nederland.
While in the DR, he is a frequent guest in daily and weekly TV programs such as “Hoy Mismo”, “Revista 110”, “Despertar con CDN”, “Diario Libre AM”, “Freites y su Gente”, “Temas del día”, “En Contexto”, “En Una Hora”, “D’Agenda”, “Sábado Agropecuario”, “Aparte y Punto”, among others. Until his return to the diplomatic corps in 2004, his weekly column was published every Tuesday in the Op/Ed pages of “El Caribe” (www.elcaribe.com.do).
His list of published books, monographs and academic papers started in 1985. Only since 2003 he has published the following:
·
Towards Development-Enhancing Trade Negotiations.
Berlin: InWent, 2006.
·
Nuevos aires en las relaciones domínico-europeas.
Santo Domingo: Funglode, 2006.
·
Una ronda de negociaciones multilaterales para el desarrollo.
Santo Domingo: Funglode, 2005.
·
What makes a round a “development round”?
Berlín: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2005.
-
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Access to Medicines Under TRIPS and the DR-CAFTA. Ottawa: Quaker International Affairs Program (QIAP, 2004).
-
Hacia el libre comercio: intereses, opciones y negociaciones. Santo Domingo: Cámara de Diputados de la República Dominicana (Editor, 2004).
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Preservando los espacios para las políticas de desarrollo en las negociaciones de la OMC. Santo Domingo: Fundación Friedrich Ebert/CIECA (2003).
-
TRIPS-Related Issues for the Consideration and Possible Ministerial Decision at Cancún. Santo Domingo: OXFAM/Intermón (2003).
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Negociaciones Agrícolas: Estado de Situación en la OMC. Santo Domingo: OXFAM (2003).
New York, 17 July 2009.