Werner CORRALES-LEAL is currently a Senior Fellow with the ICTSD. Ambassador Corrales has extensive experience in the multilateral policymaking arena, in national government, the non-profit sector and academia. He was previously an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for New Technologies of the University of the United Nations INTECH in Maastricht and a Senior Advisor to the UNCTAD-UNDP Global Programme in Geneva.
Before taking up these positions, Ambassador Corrales had a long and distinguished career in the Venezuelan government, where he served as Minister for Development, Minister of State for Economic Planning and Coordination and also as Minister for Trade. He also served as Ambassador to the UN and the WTO in Geneva for over five years, and was his country’s plenipotentiary to the FTAA and the Council of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN). Mr. Corrales is the conceiver of the notion of ‘policy space’ in international trade agreements, which he introduced in WTO on behalf of Venezuela during the preparation of the Seattle Conference in 1999. He has been a lecturer at the Centre for Development Studies (CENDES) of the Central University in Caracas, and a guest lecturer and invited speaker in various other graduate programmes related to trade and development, such as the PhD programme of the UN University in Maastricht and Masters programmes of the University of the West Indies in the Caribbean. He is a citizen of Venezuela.