Mr Joseph A Spetrini is Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Policy and Negotiations, Import Administration, International Trade Administration. He is currently the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Negotiations in Import Administration. This new position was created as part of a reorganization mandated by the Department of Commerce’s 2004 budget appropriations. In this new capacity, he is responsible for a variety of import programs and policies, including serving as a lead negotiator for the ongoing WTO Rules negotiations, negotiation and administration of all bilateral agreements related to AD/CVD cases, and broader policy issues including monitoring and engaging in a dialog with foreign governments’ regarding administration of trade laws, import licensing, and analyzing far-reaching policy issues regarding AD and CVD case work.

Joe Spetrini served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in Import Administration for the past 16 years, most recently as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for AD/CVD Enforcement Group III. During that time he has supervised hundreds of antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CVD) duty investigations and annual administrative reviews and has been a principal or supporting negotiator for scores of suspension agreements and executive agreements. AD and CVD duty measures are designed to offset unfair foreign trade practices which injure U.S. industries and workers. His principal product experience has been in steel trade issues and trade measures. He also has years of experience administering AD/CVD cases and suspension agreements involving industrial products ranging from uranium, semiconductors and machine tools to agricultural products such as lumber and honey. Since the breakup of the Former Soviet Union, Joe has spent a substantial time working on basic industrial products from that region.

Joe Spetrini handled worker trade adjustment assistance cases in the Labor Department in 1975-76 and moved to Commerce's Office of International Trade Policy to work on the Tokyo Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations during 1976-78. During 1978-80, he worked in U.S. Customs Headquarters, participating in various import programs, including the trigger price mechanism for steel imports. From 1981 through early 1986, he worked in the Commerce Department on the import problems of the U.S. steel industry. As the Director of the Office of Agreements Compliance, Joe played a key role in the negotiation and implementation of the President's program for the steel industry. From early 1986 until his appointment as Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for Compliance in September 1988, he was the Deputy to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Import Administration, participating in the management of a broad range of import programs and policies. From January 20, 1993, to April 1, 1994, Joe served as Acting Assistant Secretary for Import Administration, and as such was responsible for the full range of import activities in which the Department of Commerce was involved. During a 1996 reorganization of Import Administration, his title was changed to DAS for Group III.

Joe Spetrini was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1946. He received his high school diploma from LaSalle Academy in Providence in 1964, a B.A. in English from Manhattan College in New York in 1970, a M.A. in English from Rhode Island College in 1974, and a M.A. in economics from the University of Rhode Island in 1975. He is a Navy veteran. He taught English at Mitchell Junior College in New London, Connecticut, for two years before studying economics. After his graduate study in economics, he went to work for the U.S. Government.