16 March 2011 - Pieter Jan Kuijper joins the International Trade/WTO team at Gide Loyrette Nouel as Of Counsel:

Pieter Jan Kuijper, former Director of the Legal Affairs Division of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and former Director of the External Relations and International Trade team of the Legal Service of the European Commission, joins the Brussels office of Gide Loyrette Nouel as Of Counsel and member of the team in charge of international trade and unfair competition issues.

As a much-respected specialist in international trade, Pieter Jan Kuijper's experience is twofold:

	as an international civil servant, having spent some 25 years in the Legal Affairs Divisions of the WTO (1999-2002) and the European Commission (1979-1984, 1987-1999 and 2002-2007);

	and in academia, as Professor of International Law (1984 - 1989) and lately as Professor of the Law of International (Economic) Organizations at the Faculty of Law of the University of Amsterdam (as from 2007); he also lectures regularly at European universities and has published a number of authoritative books and articles;

He is a graduate of Leiden University (Netherlands), John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (Washington DC), and Amsterdam University (Netherlands).

Through his experience working for the WTO Secretariat and the Legal Service of the European Commission, Pieter Jan Kuijper has gained unique expertise in the enforcement of WTO law. He notably represented the European Commission before the WTO Panels and Appellate Body with regard to issues concerning GATT procedures, procurement, GATS, trade and the environment, technical barriers to trade, TRIPS and subsidies.

Olivier Prost, partner in charge of the International Trade/WTO team at Gide Loyrette Nouel, states, "Pieter Jan Kuijper will bring to our team unique practical experience in WTO law and consolidate our position as one of the benchmark European law firms in this field."

Consistently ranked among the leading specialists in international trade law, Gide Loyrette Nouel has built up almost 20 years' solid expertise in European and international regulations, particularly with regard to the enforcement of trade defence instruments. The Firm regularly represents institutions and governments in trade disputes brought before the WTO. The Firm also advises on the latest international aspects of unfair competition such as subsidy control, unfair and discriminatory trading practices (e.g. in terms of standards and procurement), investment protection and export controls.