China had long argued that its mandatory third-party liability (MTPL) market could not be opened to foreign participation, despite agreeing in 2001 to permit nondiscriminatory access to all areas of property and casualty insurance.  Such a position effectively locked U.S. insurance companies out of the lucrative Chinese auto market completely.  However, after years of developing and implementing an international legal and policy strategy on the part of Liberty Mutual, China has now opened the MTPL market to foreign companies. 

The trade policy team also assisted the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Embassy in Washington, D.C., in shaping and successfully launching a bilateral Economic Policy Dialogue (EPD) with the United States.  The EPD serves as a platform to develop new initiatives that will strengthen the economic, trade and commercial relationship between the two countries. 

The U.S. government holds EPD meetings with its most important trading partners. UAE-U.S. trade exceeds $18 billion annually, with the UAE being the largest U.S. export destination in the Middle East.  The talks, led by Jose Fernandez, assistant secretary of state for economic affairs and Khalid Al Ghaith, assistant UAE foreign minister for economic affairs, are far-reaching, extending to trade facilitation, investment, taxes, labor, intellectual property and other issues.