Profile

Roberto Echandi is the Global Product Leader on Investment Policy of the Investment Climate Department of the World Bank Group. He was formerly the director of the Programme on International Investment and member of the faculty at the World Trade Institute, University of Bern, and member of the faculty at the Master's Programme on International Economic Law and Policy at the University of Barcelona.

He has also been Ambassador of Costa Rica to the Kingdom of Belgium, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the European Union, and Chief Negotiator for Costa Rica for the Association Agreement between Central America and the European Union. For more than a decade he acted as Chief Negotiator for Costa Rica in numerous international negotiations on investment, trade in services and dispute settlement, among other trade-related subjects.

He received his LLM and undertook his doctoral studies in international trade law from the University of Michigan School of Law. He also holds an MPhil in Latin American studies from the University of Oxford and a law degree from the University of Costa Rica.

He has served as Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, Director-General for International Trade at the Ministry of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica, Special Adjunct Ambassador for US Trade Affairs, and legal advisor to the Appellate Body Secretariat of the WTO. Roberto has published several books and articles examining investment issues, dispute settlement, trade in services and the evolution of regional economic integration in the Americas.