Islam A 'Isi' Siddiqui has been nominated by U.S. President Barack Obama to be the Chief Agricultural Negotiator at the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), reports AgriMarketing. Siddiqui will negotiate contentious agricultural issues with India and other developing countries at the World Trade Organization's (WTO) stalled Doha Round.

Siddiqui is currently the vice president, Science and Regulatory Affairs, at the Washington, DC-based CropLife America, where he is responsible for regulatory and international trade issues related to crop protection chemicals. Earlier, he served as CropLife America's vice president for Agricultural Biotechnology and Trade. He has also led CropLife International's initiative to achieve reduction/elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers against crop
protection chemicals as part of the WTO Doha Round. He also represented CropLife America as a NGO at the WTO Ministerial Conference in December 2005 and at the International Conference of Chemical Management in February 2006.

From 1997 to 2001, Siddiqui held senior positions in the Clinton Administration, including Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which at the time made him the senior-most Indian American in US government. He also served as Senior Trade Advisor to then Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman and Deputy Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, where he worked closely with the USTR and represented USDA in bilateral, regional and multi-lateral agricultural trade negotiations.

Regarding his new responsibilities, Siddiqui says: "This is something on which I've worked for the last 25 years in California and four years in the Clinton Administration (from 1997 to 2001)."