Mr. Rajeev Kher belongs to the Indian Administrative Service and presently works as Member, Competition Appellate Tribunal. Immediately before the present assignment, Mr. Kher held the charge of Commerce Secretary of India. Mr. Kher has Post Graduate qualifications in Chemistry, Development Economics and Law. He has held assignments in the Government of India in the Cabinet Secretariat, the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Department of Commerce. In his parent cadre, Uttar Pradesh Mr. Kher held senior level assignments in the Department of Finance, Planning and Renewable Energy. He has been District Magistrate in two prominent Districts of Etawah and Lucknow. Mr. Kher’s professional experience in the Government ranges over a period of 35 years covering areas such as International Trade and Commerce, Sustainabl Development Policy, Planning and Law; Environmental Management, Global Governance, particularly with reference to trade and environment.

He spent nine years of his professional life in the IAS in the Department of Commerce dealing with complex issues of multilateral trading system and India’s bilateral and plurilateral economic relations. He was India’s Chief Negotiator in the WTO as well as for negotiations with major trading blocks such as the European Union, ASEAN and for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with 16 countries in Asia and Oceania. He is credited with bringing in the first elaborate foreign trade policy of the country. Earlier as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Environment and as Senior Fellow at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Mr. Kher was principal Investigator and deeply involved in drafting country’s first National Environment Policy. He was also responsible for negotiations in various multilateral environmental fora. He lectures in various institutions on subjects relating to sustainable development, trade and commerce and has held consultancy assignments with several multilateral, inter-governmental and bilateral institutions. He has published work on India’s Patent Policy, Trade Policy, WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism and other related areas.