Strategic thinking will be a major theme at the U.S. Grains Council’s upcoming meeting (Feb. 13-15) in Panama, a hub for international trade and commerce. As a featured speaker at the Council’s general session, Christian Foster, deputy administrator for the Office of Trade Programs at USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), will offer new insight with his presentation on “Strategic Priorities for U.S. Trade Leadership.�

“Christian Foster’s comments will provide an

important additional dimension for our discussions, especially as Council members begin the process of applying our updated strategic plan to the challenges facing U.S. exports,� said Tom Sleight, USGC vice president of operations and membership.

Foster will draw on an exceptionally rich background in trade, having served early in his career as Bell Atlantic Corporation’s director of business development in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. He served later as an economist for the Defense Intelligence Agency before transferring to USDA’s Economic Research Service.

In 1999, he became chief of the FAS Trade and Investment Program Branch. From 2002 until he assumed his present position, Foster was assistant deputy administrator for the Office of Capacity Building, where he focused on helping fragile and transitional economies transform into viable two-way trading markets for food and agricultural products.