Merit Janow

Merit Janow

Merit E. Janow is a professor in the practice of international trade at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Professor Janow teaches graduate courses in international economic and trade policy at SIPA and international trade law and international antitrust at Columbia University Law School. Janow has also served on the WTO appellate body since November 2003. Since 1997 she has also been an executive director of a new international competition policy advisory committee to the attorney general and assistant attorney general for antitrust at the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. From February 1990 through July 1993, she was deputy assistant U.S. trade representative for Japan and China at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Her responsibilities within USTR included the development, coordination, and implementation of U.S. trade policy and negotiating strategy toward Japan and the People's Republic of China. Before joining USTR, Janow was an associate with the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, specializing in mergers and acquisitions and international corporate transactions. From 1980 to 1985, Janow was on the staff of the Hudson Institute, based initially in Tokyo and then in New York.

Professor Janow received a BA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a JD from Columbia University Law School. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, Asia Society, and the Japan Society, among others.

In 2009, she became a member of the International Advisory Council of the Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation.