Dr Tracey Epps
Trade Policy Consultant and Barrister
Tracey Epps is an international lawyer and trade policy consultant based in Wellington, New Zealand. She works on a broad range of issues for both the public and private sectors. She advises on treaty negotiations and obligations under the World Trade Organization (WTO) and free trade agreements (FTAs). She also helps clients who export goods or supply services to engage with government and to obtain the market access benefits of WTO and FTA rules. See a more detailed list of services here.
Tracey has extensive experience working in international trade law and policy, and has worked across academic, government and private practice. This combined experience gives her a deep understanding of the legal, political and economic aspects of trade that is of value to public and private sector clients in New Zealand and internationally.
From 2016 to 2021, Tracey headed the International Trade Law Practice at Chapman Tripp, a leading New Zealand law firm, working for both public and private sector clients.
Previously, she was a senior legal advisor with the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she was, from 2010 to 2016, New Zealand’s lead Legal Counsel for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. She was also involved in a wide range of other trade and investment issues, including: working on the appeals phase in the WTO complaint that New Zealand brought against Australia in respect of access for New Zealand apples, and advising on the legal implications of Brexit for New Zealand.
She also worked in the health care consulting practices at PricewaterhouseCoopers and then IBM Business Consulting in Canada, with a focus on strategic planning and evaluation of provincial and federal government programmes.
Tracey has an LLM and SJD from the University of Toronto, and a BA/LLB(Hons) from the University of Auckland. She teaches International Trade Regulation and International Investment Law at the University of Otago in New Zealand.