| Senior Undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry for the national government of the Philippines. He supervises the country's efforts in international trade promotion undertaken through agencies specialized in the promotion of exports, imports services, trade fairs and missions including the country's Foreign Trade Service Corps with offices located in 33 countries. He also supervises multilateral trade negotiations under the WTO, regional trade negotiations in the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and bilateral trade talks with the country's major trading partners. He served as the overall lead negotiator for the Philippines in the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement and country representative to the High-Level Task Force (HLTF) on ASEAN Economic Integration. Mr. Aquino obtained a doctorate in Business Administration in 1980 from the University of Navarre (Spain), an MS in Industrial Economics in 1972 form the University of Asia and the Pacific, and an AB in Economics in 1970 from the University of the Philippines. |