Dr. Lucian Cernat is in charge of global regulatory cooperation and public procurement negotiations at DG Trade, European Commission. He is the former Chief Trade Economist of the European Commission. With almost 20 years of experience in the trade policy field, he is in charge of economic advice on EU trade policy, influencing over 4.5 trillion euros of EU trade flows annually. He is a frequent speaker at high-level events alongside award-winning economists and his publications were quoted in leading international journals (Financial Times, Wall Street Journal) and other media. He is also a regular VoxEU columnist, writing on various trade-related topics. His latest paper on "Trade Policy Analysis 2.0" was among the top 10 most read economic papers at the end of 2014.

Until 2008, Dr Cernat held various positions at the United Nations in Geneva dealing with trade and development issues. He has written extensively on the development impact of trade policies, WTO negotiations, EU preferential market access, regional trade agreements, competition policy, and corporate governance. Prior to his UN experience, he was a trade negotiator with the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Lucian Cernat obtained his PhD from University of Manchester and a postgraduate diploma from Oxford University.