Michael Froman

The Council on Foreign Relations and PrincetonPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private university and Ivy League member in Princeton, New Jersey. Chartered on October 22, 1746 as the College of New Jersey, it moved to Princeton in 1756 and adopted its present name in 1896. Undergraduate education leads to A.B. and B.S.E. degrees and emphasizes small-group discussion, independent research and residential college life. Graduate education spans the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. As of October 2026, Christopher L. Eisgruber was president. Its 2026–27 operating budget was $3.407 billion, including $342 million for undergraduate aid.Open the full entry’s School of Public and International Affairs say Froman earned an A.B. summa cum laude from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School in 1985, a doctorate in international relations from Oxford in 1989 and a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1991, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review and, he said, “worked closely together” with Barack Obama. His CFR biography notes a Fulbright Scholarship.⁠[1][2][3]

In 1991 Palgrave Macmillan published his book Development of the Idea of Detente: Coming to Terms.⁠[4]

His CFR biography records that he was director for international economic affairs at the National Security Council and National Economic Council from 1993 to 1995, deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for Eurasia and the Middle East in 1996 and Treasury chief of staff from 1997 to 1999.⁠[2]

Disney’s board announcement records that he held senior posts at Citigroup, including chief executive of its international insurance business CitiInsurance, chief operating officer of alternative investments and head of infrastructure investment.⁠[5]

In the Obama administration he was assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, serving as U.S. sherpa for ten G8 and G20 summits, chairing the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate and helping launch Power Africa and Trade Africa.⁠[2][6]

Obama announced Froman’s nomination as U.S. Trade Representative in the Rose Garden on May 2, 2013, calling him “an extraordinarily tough negotiator.” At his June 6 Senate Finance Committee hearing he said, “it is better to accept no agreement than a bad agreement.”⁠[7][8]

The Senate confirmed him 93 to 4 on June 19, and he was sworn in on June 21.⁠[9][10]

Froman announced that the United States had prevailed in a World Trade Organization dispute against China’s anti-dumping and countervailing duties on U.S. broiler chicken products.⁠[11]

At the closing press conference of the Atlanta ministerial, the twelve countries announced the conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership after more than five years of intensive negotiations.⁠[12]

His CFR biography says that as USTR he also pursued the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the EU, concluded WTO agreements on trade facilitation, agriculture and information technology products, and won passage of Trade Promotion Authority and the African Growth and Opportunity Act, among other legislation.⁠[2]

On February 4, 2016 twelve countries including the United States signed the TPP in Auckland, New Zealand. On December 15 Froman filed the Obama administration’s 15th WTO complaint against China, alleging that its tariff-rate quotas for rice, wheat and corn limited opportunities for U.S. farmers to export.⁠[13][14]

After leaving office as U.S. Trade Representative in January 2017, he became a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.⁠[15][2]

On April 16, 2018 Mastercard named him to the newly created post of vice chairman and president of strategic growth, overseeing the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and joining its management committee. On September 13 the Walt Disney Company board elected him a director, effective immediately.⁠[16][5]

The Council on Foreign Relations announced that its board had unanimously approved Froman as its 15th president, succeeding Richard Haass; chairman David M. Rubenstein said he deeply admired “his intellect, work ethic, and knowledge.” Mastercard said the same day that he would leave late in the second quarter and take up the new role on July 1.⁠[6][17]

Japan awarded him the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, in spring 2025 for advancing U.S.-Japanese economic relations and mutual understanding, presented in Tokyo on May 9. On September 12 he discussed the U.S.-China trade war at the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center.⁠[18][15][19]

Froman’s essay “The Next Global Economic Crisis Could Be Made in China” appeared online in August 2026 in Foreign Affairs’ September/October issue. According to United Daily News and Fortune, he argued that China’s subsidy-, export- and overcapacity-driven growth model was nearing its limits and that the world’s ability to absorb Chinese overcapacity was “approaching a breaking point,” with China’s goods trade surplus near $1.2 trillion in 2025 and growing about three times faster than global goods trade, a situation he called politically and structurally unsustainable.⁠[20][21]

The coverage said he called for a coordinated, “pre-emptive and gradual rebalancing” of China’s economy, including gradual renminbi appreciation, lower industrial subsidies, hukou reform and a stronger safety net to lift household consumption, and proposed seeking “verifiable commitments” from Beijing at the December 2026 G20 summit in Miami; he warned that the cleanup from a sudden Chinese slowdown would likely fall on the United States and the institutions it anchors.⁠[20][21]

CFR’s website lists his weekly pieces in 2026, including “The Latest in U.S.-China AI Competition” (July 31), “It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again: The Parallels of AI and Globalization” (September 18), “Trading Places: The U.S. and Europe on China and Russia” (October 9) and “Will Europe’s Protests Mark a Turning Point?” (October 23).⁠[2]

Council on Foreign Relations: Official biography: https://www.cfr.org/experts/michael-froman (opens in a new window)⁠[2]