The meat in the sandwich

With a measure of anxiety, in September 1993 I moved halfway across the world to Geneva to join the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) as a dispute settlement lawyer. Previously I had worked as an in-house lawyer1 and litigator on trade law in the Australian government, focusing on administrative law challenges to government decisions. Twenty-one years on, I have moved through several different jobs inside the WTO, and have thus had a range of experiences in the GATT and WTO Secretariats.