Sara Schuman is a Managing Director at Beacon Global Strategies and leads the firms International Trade Practice. Ms. Schuman brings unparalleled experience and insight at the forefront of U.S.-China trade relations, previously serving in senior U.S. government roles for more than a decade in Washington and Beijing.
Prior to joining Beacon, Ms. Schuman was the Senior Trade Representative for China at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). In this capacity, she was one of the key U.S. officials responsible for trade negotiations with China and developing and implementing U.S. trade policy towards China, including coordinating with U.S. trading partners and allies on economic security initiatives.
Ms. Schuman also served as the Minister Counselor for Trade Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing during the first Trump and Biden Administrations. As the top U.S. trade official in China, she served as USTR’s envoy to the People’s Republic of China.
Ms. Schuman was deeply involved with the Phase One Agreement trade negotiations and had broad responsibilities for monitoring implementation of China’s commitments under the agreement. During the second Trump Administration, she was involved in multiple rounds of high-level negotiations with China and USTR’s review of China-related trade issues under the “Presidential Memorandum on America First Trade Policy”.
Ms. Schuman also has extensive experience with trade enforcement actions, including work on several trade disputes against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on issues such as rare earths, raw materials, aircraft, automobiles, aluminum, intellectual property rights, subsidies, electronic payments, and agriculture. She also played a leading role in USTR’s Section 301 investigation of China’s technology transfer practices during the first Trump Administration.
During her time in government, Ms. Schuman worked extensively with other U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Treasury, Department of Commerce, Department of State, Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, and Department of Homeland Security.
Ms. Schuman was also detailed to the U.S. House of Representative’s bipartisan Select Committee on the Strategic Competition with China for one year, where she served as a senior advisor on trade and economic security to the Ranking Member.
Ms. Schuman is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and has spent more than a decade living and working in China. Prior to joining USTR in 2013, Ms. Schuman previously practiced law with an international law firm in New York and Beijing.
She holds a J.D. magna cum laude from Brooklyn Law School and a B.A. cum laude in International Politics and Economics from Middlebury College. She also holds a certificate in China Studies from the Johns Hopkins University Nanjing Center.