Ambassador Echandi undertook his doctoral and LL.M. studies in International Trade Law at the University of Michigan School of Law at Ann Arbor, Michigan; his M.Phil. in Latin American studies with emphasis in economic integration at the University of Oxford; Licenciado en Derecho, at the University of Costa Rica and specialized negotiation courses at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University. Before being appointed Ambassador to the EC by President Oscar Arias in early 2007, for several years Ambassador Echandi was the Program Director of the Small Economy Trade & Investment Center (SETIC), Academia de Centroamerica, San Jose, Costa Rica. SETIC is a specialized program aimed at providing training, advisory services and research to small developing economies in the field of international investment, trade law and policy. Since 1993 Ambassador Echandi has also been Professor of International Trade and Investment Law at the Diplomatic Institute "Manuel María Peralta" of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica. From October 2002 until January 2005, he was appointed by the Government of Costa Rica as Special Adjunct Ambassador for U.S. Trade Affairs. From this position at the Ministry of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica he participated in the negotiations of the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), process in which he was the Costa Rican lead negotiator in two negotiation groups, services and investment and trade capacity building. Ambassador Echandi has also been Adjunct Professor of Law, Visiting Scholar and Fellow at the Institute for International Economic Law (IIEL) of the Georgetown University Law Center, at Washington D.C. He has also served as Director-General for International Trade at the Ministry of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica, and as legal advisor to the Appellate Body Secretariat of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland. Ambassador Echandi has published several specialized books and articles in Costa Rica, the United States and Europe. His national and international publications have been focused on the legal and political economy dimension of investment issues, dispute settlement, trade in services and the evolution of the process of regional economic integration in the Americas. He has also participated as consultant and key note speaker in numerous seminars and conferences organized in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America by international organizations such as the OECD, the World Bank, UNCTAD, the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Development Bank and the WTO.