His Excellency Federico Alberto Cuello Camilo (Santo Domingo, 1966) is a diplomat of the Dominican Republic. Since 14 July 2011, he is the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, where he seeks to maximize the opportunities for increased bilateral trade and investment arising from the Economic Partnership Agreement between the Caribbean Forum Member States and the European Union and its Member States (the CARIFORUM-EU EPA). Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II received his letters of credence at Buckingham Palace on 11 October 2011.
Previously, he served as the Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations in New York, with the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. He presented his letters of credence to Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, on 3 June 2009.
During his tenure in New York he succeeded in electing his country for the first time as member of the Executive Board of UN Women (2011–2014) and to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC, 2012–2013). His thematic priorities in New York were promoting political stability and economic development in Haiti; promoting food and nutritional security; compliance with the Millenium Development Goals; preventing and mitigating natural disasters; achieving gender equality; and transitioning to renewable energy sources in order to adapt to climate change.
Organizationally, he led the transformation of the Permanent Mission from a traditional diplomatic unit into a knowledge center, with information flowing both ways, to and from the key government decision-makers, thus generating local ownership for the legal and institutional reforms required for implementing the outcomes of UN events. To that effect he personally became involved in monthly coordination meetings with the UN Country Team in the Dominican Republic, complemented with direct contacts with his government's relevant implementing agencies.
In December 2004, he was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Dominican Republic to the Kingdom of Belgium, presenting his credentials to His Majesty King Albert II (February 2005), to the European Union (May 2005), the Czech Republic (November 2007) and Poland (January, 2008), negotiating successfully the CARIFORUM-EU EPA.
He was also the Dominican Ambassador, Permanent Representative to the European Office of the United Nations and to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland, between March 1999 and August 2002, collaborating in the successful integration of developing country priorities into the Doha Ministerial Declaration (2001).
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After concluding his doctoral studies and concurrently with his official duties, he served as a Project Coordinator for a number of economic reform projects in the Dominican Republic, operating with funding from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), ITU, UNDP, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic. The culmination of this work was the enactment and implementation of new legal and institutional frameworks on trade negotiations, telecommunications, industrial property, copyright, consumer protection and competition policy.
Among his prior official duties since 1986, he served as a Vice-Minister of Economics (1995–1999) and as an Economic Adviser to the Chamber of Deputies (2003–2004).
His experience in trade negotiations started in 1993 during the services negotiations of the Uruguay Round and continued during the ensuing negotiations at the World Trade Organization (1995–2002); the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA, 1995–99); the Free Trade Agreement between CARICOM and the DR (1997–98); and the Free Trade Treaty between Central-America and the DR (1997–98).
Throughout his career, he has held the following positions within intergovernmental decision-making or representative bodies:
Vice-President, Preparatory Committee of the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least-Developed Countries, New York and Istanbul, 2011;
Member of the Executive Board of UN Women, New York, 2011;
Member of the Group of Friends of Food and Nutritional Security, New York, 2011;
Member of the Group of Friends of the Future of the United Nations, New York, 2011;
Member of the Group of Friends of the Millenium Development Goals, New York, 2010–2011;
Member of the Executive Council of the Association of Permanent Representatives to the United Nations, New York, 2009–2011;
Chairman of the Committee of Ambassadors of the Group of Río, Brussels, 2007;
Chairman of the Committee of Ambassadors of the Caribbean Group, Brussels, 2007;
Chairman of the Committee of Ambassadors of the Group of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP), Brussels, 2006;
Vice-Chairman of the Ambassadorial Working Group on the Future of the ACP Group, 2006–2007;
Lead Negotiator on Trade in Services and Investment, as a Member of the Caribbean College of Negotiators for the Regional Economic Partnership Agreement with the EC, 2005–2007;
Chairman of the ACP Group, Geneva, 2002;
Chairman of the Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC) at UNCTAD, Geneva, 2001;
Vice-President of UNCTAD's Trade and Development Board, Geneva, 2001;
First Chairman and Founder of the GRULAC, International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Geneva, 2001–2002;
Chairman of the GRULAC, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva, 2000;
Vice-Chairman of the International Summit for the Information Society, Geneva, 2001–2002;
Vice-Chairman of the International Conference on Competition Law and Policy at UNCTAD, Geneva, 2000–2005;
First Chairman and Founder of the WTO Paradisus Group with El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the DR, 1999–2002;
First Chairman and Founder of the WTO CARIFORUM Group with the CARICOM Missions to the WTO and Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Geneva, 2000;
First Chairman and Founder of the WTO Group of 5 with Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama which negotiated jointly the accession of the People’s Republic of China, Geneva, 2000–2001;
First Chairman and Founder of the Working Group for the Liberalization of Tourism of the World Tourism Organization (WTO/OMT), Madrid, 1999–2002;
Chairman of UNCTAD’s Commission on Trade in Goods, Services and Commodities. Geneva, 1999;
Cuello was educated at the University of Illinois and the Santo Domingo Institute of Technology. He has a Ph. D. in Regional Science and Development Economics (University of Illinois, 1994); an M. A. in Economic Theory and Econometrics (University of Illinois, 1990) and a B. Sc. in Economics, Magna Cum Laude (Technological Institute of Santo Domingo—INTEC--, 1987).
He was the Director of the School of Economics of his Alma Mater, INTEC (1993–1994). In march 2003, he was recruited as a Research Professor of Economics at the Pontifical Catholic University “Mater et Magistra” (PUCMM, St. Thomas Aquinas Campus), where he lectured on Development Economics (at the advanced undergraduate level) and Economic Policy (at the graduate level). He is on leave without pay since January 2005 for the duration of his service to the Dominican Foreign Service.
His research on trade, development and intellectual property have been funded by OXFAM/Intermón (Santo Domingo), Friedrich Ebert Foundation (Santo Domingo and Geneva), Quaker International Affairs Program (QIAP, Ottawa), Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) and International Lawyers and Economists Against Poverty (ILEAP). He accepted a special leave without pay from the PUCMM to rejoin his country’s diplomatic corps as Ambassador in Brussels.
He has lectured on these issues to the European Parliament, the EC, MERCOSUR, the Andean Pact, the International Center for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), the Parliament of Surinam, the Canadian, Dominican, Finnish and German Governments, the Foreign Policy Association (New York), Latin American Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (ALIFAR), the Federation of European Chambers of Commerce, Oxford University, the Free University of Brussels, the Universities of the United Nations, Antwerp, Leuven, Manchester, Prague and Warsaw, the Complutense University of Madrid, Fairleigh-Dickinson University, the Catholic University of Santo Domingo (UCSD), PUCMM and INTEC.
His list of published books, monographs and academic papers started in 1985 and are available within the academic databases of institutions of higher education. Following is a partial list of his published works after 2003:
Dominican Multilateral Diplomacy at the United Nations, 2009-2011. Santo Domingo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (In Spanish and English, forthcoming 2012).
On the Urgency and the Importance of Disaster Risk Reduction. In R. González, F. Peña-Mora, R. Plunz, A. Werner-Lamb et al. (Forthcoming, 2011): Natural Hazards and Disaster Risk Management in the Dominican Republic. New York: Columbia University.
Realizing the Cotonou Blueprint Through a Development-Enhancing Agreement. In Americo Beviglia-Zampetti & Junior Lodge (2011): The CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement: A Practitioners’ Analysis, pp. 11–18. Kluwer Law International BV, The Netherlands.
Questions Seeking Answers. Nation News, Bridgetown, Barbados, 27 April 2009.
Milestones in the CARIFORUM-EC Economic Partnership Agreement. Nation News, Bridgetown, Barbados, 18 December 2008.
MFN in the CARIFORUM-EC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) is no Threat to South-South Trade. In Trade Negotiations Insights, Geneva, Vol. 7, No. 4, May 2008.
Towards Development-Enhancing Trade Negotiations. Berlin: InWent, 2006.
Nuevos aires en las relaciones domínico-europeas. Santo Domingo: Funglode, 2006.
Una ronda de negociaciones multilaterales para el desarrollo. Santo Domingo: Funglode, 2005.
What makes a round a “development round”? Berlín: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2005.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Access to Medicines Under TRIPS and the DR-CAFTA. Ottawa: Quaker International Affairs Program (QIAP, 2004).
Hacia el libre comercio: intereses, opciones y negociaciones. Santo Domingo: Cámara de Diputados de la República Dominicana (Editor, 2004).
"Preservando los espacios para las políticas de desarrollo en las negociaciones de la OMC" en Isa-Contreras, Pável; Miguel Ceara and Federico Cuello Camilo (2003): Desarrollo y políticas comerciales en la República Dominicana. Santo Domingo: Fundación Friedrich Ebert/CIECA.
TRIPS-Related Issues for the Consideration and Possible Ministerial Decision at Cancún. Santo Domingo: OXFAM/Intermón, 2003.
Negociaciones Agrícolas: Estado de Situación en la OMC. Santo Domingo: OXFAM, 2003.
Isa Contreras, Pavel, Miguel Ceara Hatton and Cuello Camilo, Federico. 2003. Desarrollo y políticas comerciales en la República Dominicana, Santo Domingo: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and CIECA.