Biography — Shree Baboo Chekitan Servansing (Mauritius)

Born in Mauritius on 22 April 1955, Shree Baboo Chekitan Servansing enjoyed a long and distinguished career with the Mauritian civil service. From 2004 to 2012, Mr Servansing was Mauritius' Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva, including the WTO. During his tenure as Permanent Representative, he served on various Committees at the WTO, and chaired the Committees on Trade and Environment, and Trade and Development. He also chaired the Work Programme on Small Economies, the dedicated session on Aid-for-Trade, and the African Group, and was coordinator of the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Group.

Mr Servansing previously worked, in various capacities, for the Mauritius Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mauritius, India and Belgium. During his tenure at the Mauritius Embassy in Belgium, he was intensively involved in the ACP-EU negotiations leading to the Cotonou Agreement and subsequently in the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations. Mr Servansing also served as the personal representative of the Prime Minister of Mauritius on the Steering Committee of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). In this capacity he was engaged in the strategic formulation of Africa's flagship development framework.

Upon retiring from civil service, Mr Servansing served as the head of the ACP-EU Programme on Technical Barriers to Trade in Brussels from 2012 to 2014. In this position, he was responsible for facilitating the building of capacity among ACP countries in order to enhance their export competitiveness, and improve their Quality Infrastructure to comply with technical regulations.

Mr Servansing's experience in trade policy, trade negotiations, and the multilateral trading system spans three decades. He has frequently spoken on international trade issues, and has published numerous papers and articles in Mauritian and foreign journals on a variety of trade-related issues.

Mr Servansing holds an M.A. from the University of Sussex, a Postgraduate Diploma in Foreign Affairs and International Trade from Australian National University, and a B.A. (Hons.) from the University of Mauritius.