Ernesto Fernández Monge

PROFILE

Ernesto Fernández Monge works with Pew’s conservation support team providing expertise on the link between trade and environment, particularly on subsidies harmful to the environment and plastic waste. Fernández Monge previously worked on Pew’s reducing harmful fisheries subsidies project, an initiative focused on securing a World Trade Organization agreement to substantially curtail subsidies that promote unsustainable levels of fishing.

Before joining Pew, Fernández Monge did consulting work for the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Organization of American States. He began his career as a commercial lawyer in Costa Rica, moved to the nation’s ministry of foreign trade as a legal adviser and negotiator, and later worked in Costa Rica’s WTO mission in Geneva. In the WTO mission, Fernández Monge handled negotiations and disputes on market access, trade facilitation, fisheries subsidies, and other trade issues. Fernández Monge also served as chairman of the WTO’s Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices and was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center.

Fernández Monge has a master’s degree in international trade law and European Union law from the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands, and a law degree from Universidad Escuela Libre de Derecho in San José, Costa Rica.