Tetsuya Watanabe

Tetsuya Watanabe is Vice President at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) and Visiting Professor at Graduate School of Public Policy, the University of Tokyo. In his capacity at RIETI, he hosts the RIETI Global Intelligence Series where he discusses and analyses, with experts from the US, the EU and Asia, the geopolitical tensions, global trade governance, climate change challenges, digital transformation and regional integration in Asia. He joined RIETI in 2020 after over three decades of a career as a trade policy maker and negotiator in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), where he served as Director General for the Trade Policy. During his career at METI he worked on a wide range of bilateral, regional and multilateral trade negotiations and initiatives, including the WTO Joint Statement Initiatives on E-Commerce, the Trilateral Trade Ministers Meetings, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the Japan-US Trade Agreement and the Japan-UK Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. He also served as the Chief Counsellor at the Government Headquarter for the Trans Pacific Partnership at the Cabinet Secretariat.