Michael Beeman

Michael Beeman is an author, university lecturer, and former senior U.S. trade official. His extensive work on U.S. trade and economic relations with Japan and the Asia-Pacific region includes a 16-year career at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where he most recently served as Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Japan, Korea, and APEC (2017–2023). In that role, he led the renegotiation of the U.S.–Korea Free Trade Agreement and negotiations for the U.S.–Japan Trade Agreement, among other efforts. He also advanced U.S. initiatives as the senior U.S. official on trade in the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. Prior to this, he led a wide range of U.S.–Japan trade and economic initiatives as the Deputy Assistant USTR for Japan. After leaving USTR in 2023, Dr. Beeman returned to research and teaching, including as a Visiting Scholar at Stanford’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Institute and as a lecturer at Stanford University and UC San Diego. He is the author of two books, Walking Out: America’s New Trade Policy in the Asia-Pacific and Beyond (Stanford University Press, 2024) and Public Policy and Economic Competition in Japan (Routledge, 2002). He was previously a Fulbright Advanced Research Fellow and Monbusho Scholar in Japan and a Graduate Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Program on U.S.-Japan Relations. He holds a DPhil (PhD) in Politics from the University of Oxford, an MA in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and a BA from Southern Methodist University.