BARRY SOLARZ, Senior Vice President, Trade and Economic Policy, American Iron and Steel Institute

Mr. Solarz helps to develop the trade and economic policy positions of AISI’s member companies, and advises government agencies, other industries and the general public of AISI’s views. In that capacity, he helps to staff AISI’s Council of U.S. Producers as well as its North American Steel Council, serves as an advisor to the U.S. government at OECD meetings and represents AISI on the Worldsteel Economic Studies Committee and the National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM’s) International Trade Subcommittee.

Mr. Solarz helps to forge common U.S. and North American steel producer positions on trade policy and competitiveness issues. In recent years, issues where Mr. Solarz has played a key role in the development of U.S. and North American steel industry positions include China trade, the WTO Doha Round, the OECD Steel Subsidies Agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Free Trade Area of the Americas. On these and other issues, he often works closely with other industries through coalitions, such as the Committee to Support U.S. Trade Laws (to defend and enhance trade laws), the Fair Currency Coalition (to address fundamental currency misalignment) and the NAM (to implement a pro-manufacturing agenda).

He joined the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) in January 1982. Prior to that, he worked as an international economist at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs’ Office of Trade Policy, and as a political/economic risk analyst at the Brookings Institution for Mr. Helmut Sonnenfeldt, former Political Counselor at the United States State Department.

Mr. Solarz is a graduate of the University of California, and has Masters Degrees from the University of Wisconsin and the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He has studied for a year each at the University of Lund, Sweden and the SAIS Bologna Center in Bologna, Italy.