President Obama announced this week his intention to nominate Darci L. Vetter for chief agricultural negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) with the rank of ambassador.  She will succeed Ambassador Siddiqui, who recently announced that he will be departing USTR.

Vetter is currently undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services at USDA, where she oversees the department’s international activities and has key responsibilities in international trade negotiations and export assistance programs, as well as  coordinating USDA’s role in international food aid.  She has held this position since 2010.

From 2007 to 2010, Vetter was an international trade adviser on the Democratic staff on the Senate Finance Committee, chaired  by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT).  Before working in the Senate, Vetter held a number of roles at USTR, including director of agricultural affairs from 2005 to 2007 and director for sustainable development from 2001 to 2005.  Before that, she was special assistant to the undersecretary for management at the U.S. State Department from 2000 to 2001.

Vetter received a bachelor of arts degree from Drake University and a master in public administration degree and a certificate in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.