Jan Elizabeth Adams

Jan Elizabeth Adams
Born	1 January 1963
Alma mater	Monash University, Melbourne
Occupation	Public servant, diplomat
Children	one son

Jan Elizabeth Adams (born 1963) is an Australian diplomat.

Early life and education

Jan Adams studied economics and law at Monash University in Melbourne. She completed her economics studies in 1986 with a Bachelor of Economics (honours). In 1988 she worked at the Trade Directorate of the OECD in Paris,^[1] before returning to Monash University to complete her law studies in 1992 with a Bachelor of Laws (honours). Her Laws honours thesis was on the topic ‘Applying the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to Environmental Law and Policy’.

During her undergraduate studiesAdams focused her interests on the governance of international trade. She worked as a research assistant to Professor Richard H. Snape in the Department of Economics at Monash University, particularly on the study Regional Trade Agreements: Implications and Options for Australia, which was published in 1993 by DFAT.

Political career

Adams worked as an Adviser to the Australian Minister for Trade (1993-1994) and Minister for Industry, Science and Technology (1994-1996), Senator Peter Cook. She returned to Paris to work in the Environment Directorate of the OECD during 1996-1998, where she wrote studies on trade and environment issues. In 1999 she worked briefly as a consultant on foreign investment and the environment.^[2]

Adams joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in 1999 as Assistant Secretary of the APEC Branch. She subsequently served as Minister Counsellor for Trade at the Australian Embassy in Washington during 2000-2004. In that capacity she was involved in negotiations leading to the Australia-US FTA. Following the completion of the negotiations, she led the Australian advocacy campaign in the USA for the FTA. This contributed to overwhelming Congressional support for the FTA, which entered into force in 2005.

Adams' held positions in (DFAT) in Canberra, Australia, as First Assistant Secretary in the Free Trade Agreement Division (2009-2013) and Deputy Secretary (2013-2015).^[3] In the first position she was lead negotiator for Australia during the bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with respectively China, Japan, South Korea and India.^[4] In the latter position she took a leading role for Australia in the ongoing negotiations about the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA).^[5]

In December 2004 Adams was appointed to the important position of Australia’s Ambassador for the Environment (2005-2007) and Ambassador for Climate Change (2007-2009).^[6] In that role she headed the policy development that led to the establishment of the significant six-nation Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (AP6), a voluntary public-private partnership involving Australia, Canada, India, Japan, the People’s Republic of China, South Korea and the USA during 2006-2011.

From February 2016, she holds the post of Australian Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China.^[7] The previous Australian ambassador to China was Frances Adamson.

Awards

Adams received the Australian Public Service Medal (PSM) in 2007, awarded to her for public service in pursuing Australia’s international objectives on trade and the environment, particularly the AP6.^[8]

References

1. ‘The Negotiator’, The Australian (17 October 2008).
2. OECD Conference on Foreign Investment and the Environment, The Hague, The Netherlands, 28-29 January 1999.
3. 'Jan Adams: Executive Profile & Biography', Bloomberg Business.
4. 'Negotiating the Trifecta: How Australia's Free Trade Agreements with Korea, Japan and China Were Forged', AsiaSociety-Australia (31 March 2015).
5. Dorling, Philip (2015) ‘WikiLeaks: Secret Trade Deal Exposed’, The Saturday Paper (4 July 2015).
6. 'Diplomatic appointment: Ambassador for the Environment', Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Media release (10 December 2004); ‘The Negotiator’, The Australian (17 October 2008).
7. 'Ambassador to China', Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Media release (22 October 2015).
8. 'Media Notes Public Service Medal PSM' (2007).