Senior Trade Policy Attaché (CHEG24.419)

The UK Mission to the United Nations (UN) & World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva represents the interests and policies of the UK at the international organisations in Geneva. We are now looking for an experienced and highly motivated Senior Trade Policy Attaché, to help deliver the UK Government’s priorities at the World Trade Organization (WTO), with a particular focus on goods trade opportunities for UK business, and wider interactions in support of economic growth.

You will play a full role in an inclusive and expert economic and trade team at the UK Mission in Geneva, supporting colleagues and working effectively with a range of Government departments and stakeholders in the UK.

Roles and responsibilities

You will:

• Engage with the WTO Committees under the Council for Trade in Goods to deliver outcomes for British businesses.
• Represent the UK in negotiations at the WTO.
• Manage the team’s interactions with external stakeholders, particularly UK businesses and civil society, including developing new contacts with these groups in the UK and more widely.
• Play a role in the wider corporate objectives of the Mission, with a particular focus on building a confident, expert and inclusive team. As a Senior Attaché role, you may also be asked to take on direct line management responsibilities.
• As required, you may also be asked to take on wider trade policy work, taking account of interlinkages between portfolios, and changing priorities in line with the UK Government’s wider trade strategy and multilateral goals.

You will need the skills to:

• Provide quality analysis and advice on issues affecting UK objectives on trade in goods specific files at the WTO (40%);
• Represent the UK in formal and informal settings, using a strong network of contacts from other Missions, the WTO Secretariat and elsewhere. Lead the team’s interactions with external stakeholders, including industry and business and lead, plan and deliver high-impact visits Ministers, senior officials, and business leaders (40%);
• Work with UKMis and Whitehall colleagues to maximise opportunities for the UK at major events including the WTO Public Forum and the WTO Ministerial Conference (20%).

You will enable the team to deliver the following outcomes:

• Use the WTO to deliver stable and resilient supply chains. Working with WTO Members at the Committee on Market Access to identify and resolve issues in global supply chains.
• Support UK business by resolving barriers to market access significant to UK exporters.
• Explore possible new agreements to promote uptake of environmental goods.
• Communicate our work. Externally engaging UK businesses to understand and use WTO processes. Internally, engaging the HMG trade policy network to help them deliver outcomes at, with and through the WTO.
• Support the UK Government’s wider growth mission, taking account of new and evolving industrial and trade strategy priorities.

• Fluency in both oral and written English (minimum of C1 level for CEFR framework*) and excellent communication skills.
• Knowledge of multilateral economic issues.
• Experience engaging on multilateral issues with government representatives, business and other stakeholders.
• Excellent interpersonal and team-working skills.

• Multilateral experience working on trade in goods. This could be through working in exporting businesses or working with business representative organisations.
• Demonstrated ability to listen and understand other countries’ priorities, including coherence with international development goals,
• Trade negotiations, including towards multilateral, plurilateral and bilateral agreements
• Experience working in/with the WTO regular and negotiating committees and working groups or demonstrated ability quickly to master ways of working for success in these bodies.
• The work heavily relies on legal and economic concepts. It is important to be comfortable with these.
• Spanish and French are also working languages of the WTO and would be an asset.