About

Serving as Colombia’s chief negotiator for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism from 2017 onwards, and as a lawyer within the ministry department since 2004, Nicolas Torres Alvarez is a lawyer and negotiator at the very top of his industry. He has been an important public servant of Colombia for the last 30 years having previously worked for Colombia’s central bank and Ministry of Finance. With his experience, he is well placed to see the big picture and important details of Colombia’s economic policy and able to participate in the implementation of such policy through the drafting of legal instruments. He participated in the drafting of the constitution of Colombia in 1991, particularly the legal framework for economic policy embodied in the act, which allows him to analyse economic law and regulation from its foundations. Alvarez became involved with trade negotiations in the 1990’s and developed his career which led to his appointment as chief trade negotiator. He says that, ‘in this part of my career I participated in the negotiation and legal scrub of almost all of Colombia’s free trade agreements, and also in the establishment of the Pacific Alliance, which is currently the most successful economic integration scheme in which Colombia is participating. He also represented Colombia before the World Trade Organisation (WTO), both as a Geneva delegate and as counsel for Colombia in WTO dispute settlement cases such as “Textiles DS461” and “Spirits DS502”. He has also represented Colombia as counsel in more than 10 cases brought before the Andean Community dispute settlement mechanism, and drafted the legal instruments for the implementation of Colombia’s free trade agreements with the US, the EU and the Republic of Korea. He provided legal advice and drafted legal instruments leading to Colombia’s accession to the OECD. His leadership and experience is demonstrated not just in his negotiations and his formal role as chief legal counsel, but also in the way that he has developed his team. About this, he says ‘the most important change I made to the legal department was to direct it in a way that would address the needs of our customers, which were the different divisions of Colombia’s Ministry of Trade. Prior to me directing the Ministry’s international legal division, there was no awareness of how the division’s opinions would be used to enhance Colombia’s participation in international markets. As an in house legal advisor for the government, my division used to focus on internal administrative law, with little or no awareness of the economic effect of legal work. I changed the view in which legal opinions and instruments are drafted’. The other important change he made was to improve and promote legal talent. There are more and more young, talented lawyers in Colombia developing skills that allow the country to have better legal advice for its participation in global markets and it is important to Alvarez to promote this talent.