Biography

Maryse Robert is chief of the Trade Section in the Department of Trade, Tourism and Competitiveness at the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS). Since March 1995, she has been assisting OAS Member States in the areas of investment, services trade, and trade policy in general. She has designed, managed and delivered several training courses on investment and services in regional trade arrangements in the Americas, and has coordinated since 2005 the annual two-week course "Managing Investment Disputes," which is jointly offered by the General Secretariat of the OAS and the UNCTAD Secretariat. Dr. Robert, a Canadian national, is a member of Honduras and Costa Rica's roster of arbitrators for the Chapter on Investment in their free trade agreement with Mexico.

She has taught at Georgetown University, George Mason University, the US State Department's Foreign Service Institute, the University of The West Indies, ENAP-Montreal, and HEC-Montreal. She has lectured in seminars/courses organized by several institutions such as the APEC Working Groups on Services and Investment, the OECD, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC), UNCTAD, the Department for International Development (DFID), the Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL), the CARICOM Secretariat, the Andean Community Secretariat, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, and the Institut québécois des hautes études internationales.

Dr. Robert has authored numerous studies on trade-related issues. She is the co-editor with José M. Salazar-Xirinachs of Toward Free Trade in the Americas/Hacia el libre comercio en las Américas (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press/General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, 2001) and the author of Negotiating NAFTA: Explaining the Outcome in Culture, Textiles, Autos, and Pharmaceuticals (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000). Dr. Robert is an economist with training in international trade law. She holds a Ph.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University) and a Master's degree in applied economics from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (Montreal, Canada). Before joining the OAS, she worked on trade and development issues at the World Bank and the United Nations.

Selected publications

Books

Toward Free Trade in the Americas, ed. by José M. Salazar-Xirinachs and Maryse Robert. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press/General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, 2001.

Hacia el libre comercio en las Américas, ed. by José M. Salazar-Xirinachs and Maryse Robert. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press/General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, 2001.

Negotiating NAFTA: Explaining the Outcome in Culture, Textiles, Autos, and Pharmaceuticals (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000).

Robert, Maryse, forthcoming. Do Trade Agreements Trade Away the Right to Regulate? A Look at Existing Provisions on Goods, Services, IPR, and Invesment.

Robert, Maryse, 2007. "Trade Institutions for the Americas: An Intricate Web of Arrangements." In Governing the Americas: Assessing Multilateral Institutions, edited by Gordon Mace, Jean-Philippe Therien and Paul Haslam. Boulder, Co.: Lynne Rienner.

Robert, Maryse. 2005. "Canada and the Americas: Trading Beyond the Neighbourhood." In The Art of the State II: Thinking North America, edited by Thomas J. Courchene, Donald. J. Savoie, and Daniel Schwanen. Montréal: Institute for Research on Public Policy.

Sauvé, Pierre, and Maryse Robert. 2004. Investment Issues and their Interface with Services. Singapore: Pacific Economic Cooperation Council.

Robert, Maryse. 2003. "Trade Arrangements and the Caribbean," Paper presented at a Conference on Trade Agreements, Port of Spain, Trinidad. June 5-6.

Robert, Maryse, Sauvé, Pierre, and Karsten Steinfatt. 2002. "Negotiating Investment Rules: Possible Scenarios for a MERCOSUR-EU Agreement." In An Integrated Approach to the EU-MERCOSUR Association, edited by Paolo Giordano. Paris: Presses de l'Institut de Sciences Politiques.

Robert, Maryse. 2002. "The Design of Regional Trade Arrangements in Asia and the Americas: The Case of Investment and Services." Paper presented at the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council's Trade Policy Forum, Lima, May 17-19.

Robert, Maryse. 2002. "El Area de Libre Comercio de las Américas después de Québec: situación del juego y pasos siguientes." In Comercio Internacional (Revista del Centro Andino de Estudios Internacionales) 3 (1st semester of 2002): 69-74.

Robert, Maryse. 2001. "Moving Toward a Common Set of Multilateral Investment Rules: Lessons from Latin America." In Latin America: Its Future in the Global Economy, ed. by Patricia Gray Rich. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, pp. 164-83.

Robert, Maryse. 2001. "Multilateral and Regional Investment Rules: What Comes Next?" OAS Trade Unit Studies Series, March.

Robert, Maryse. 2001. "Investment Rules in the Americas." In Toward Free Trade in the Americas, edited by José M. Salazar-Xirinachs and Maryse Robert. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press/General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, pp.186-206.

Robert, Maryse. 2001. "The FTAA après Quebec: State of Play, Next Steps, and Remaining Challenges." Paper presented at the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council's Trade Policy Forum, Bangkok, June 12-13.

Robert, Maryse. 2001. "Free Trade Agreements in the Americas." In Toward Free Trade in the Americas, edited by José M. Salazar-Xirinachs and Maryse Robert. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press/General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, pp. 87-107.

Mackay, Donald and Maryse Robert. 2001. "Government Procurement in the Americas." In Toward Free Trade in the Americas, edited by José M. Salazar-Xirinachs and Maryse Robert. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press/General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, pp. 244-54.

Mackay, Donald R., Maryse Robert, and Rosine Plank-Brumback. 2001. "Trade in Goods and Agriculture in the Americas." In Toward Free Trade in the Americas, edited by José M. Salazar-Xirinachs and Maryse Robert. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press/General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, pp. 125-40.

Robert, Maryse. 2000. "Negotiating Services Agreements: Challenges Ahead." In Services Trade in the Western Hemisphere: Liberalization, Integration, and Reform, edited by Sherry M. Stephenson. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution/General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, pp. 242-52.

Robert, Maryse, and Theresa Wetter. 1999. "Toward an Investment Agreement in the Americas: Building on the Existing Consensus." In Trade Rules in the Making: Challenges in Regional and Multilateral Negotiations, edited by Miguel Rodríguez Mendoza, Patrick Low, and Barbara Kotschwar. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution/General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, pp. 389-416.

Robert, Maryse. 1999. "Investment Agreements in the Americas: Convergence of Rules." In Foreign Direct Investment Policy and Promotion in Latin America. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, pp. 45-49.

Robert, Maryse. 1998. "Investment Rules and the Caribbean." Paper presented at the joint OAS-UNCTAD Seminar held in Kingston, Jamaica, September 28-29.

Robert, Maryse, and Theresa Wetter. 1996. "Bilateral Investment Treaties in the Western Hemisphere." In Investment Policies in Latin America and Multilateral Rules on Investment. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, pp. 93-105.