Crawford Falconer KCMG
Biography
Crawford Falconer is the Second Permanent Secretary for the Department for Business and Trade. He also heads the trade negotiation profession within the Civil Service. Previously he was the Second Permanent Secretary for the Department for International Trade.
Crawford has spent over 25 years working on trade policy and trade negotiations both inside and outside government. He has worked in a number of high-profile positions including as the New Zealand Chief Negotiator and Adviser. He most recently served as Professor of Global Value Chains and Trade at Lincoln University, New Zealand.
Crawford’s previous roles include:
- Deputy Secretary (Vice Minister) in the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- New Zealand Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Geneva
- Chair of the WTO DOHA round negotiations on agriculture and cotton
- Trade strategy coordinator and WTO senior official for the New Zealand Foreign and Trade Ministry
- Leading trade projects at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on services and trade value added
- Director of Multilateral trade in the New Zealand Trade Ministry
- Fellow at the New Zealand Institute of Policy Studies
Crawford studied at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and the London School of Economics. In a personal capacity, he is a past Chair of the OECD Trade Committee, the WTO Subsidies Committee and the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council National Committee. He has been a judge on over 15 international trade disputes brought before the WTO, including recently on long-running Boeing-Airbus dispute. Crawford has written several publications, including (with Sir Frank Holmes) “Open Regionalism, NAFTA, CER and a Pacific Basin Initiative”.
Crawford is a dual-national UK and New Zealand citizen.
Second Permanent Secretary and Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser
The Second Permanent Secretary and Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser oversees the trade policy and negotiation agenda for the Department for Business and Trade and supports the Permanent Secretary in running the department.