Don Johnson was named Chief Textile Negotiator by U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky on March 9, 1998. In this capacity, Mr. Johnson serves as the principal advisor to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the President on all textile and apparel trade matters and negotiates all trade agreements covering trade in textiles and apparel. Trade in textiles and apparel between the U.S. and its trading partners amounted to over $70 billion last year.
Mr. Johnson previously served in the United States Congress, representing the 10th District of Georgia. After leaving Washington in January 1995, former Congressman Johnson served as President of an international trade and investment consulting company, and acted as corporate counsel to a group of companies engaged international trade. He taught part time at the University of Georgia, and was an advisor to the Dean Rusk Center for International and Comparative Law and the European Center in Atlanta. Additionally, he worked with USIS and the Former Members of Congress Association to assist new democratic legislative bodies in South Asia and Eastern Europe in the area of parliamentary reform. He also served on the board of directors of Sector Communications, Inc.
Don Johnson received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Georgia where he majored in modern European history. He earned his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Georgia Law School with a concentration in international law, under former Secretary of State Dean Rusk. He was articles editor of the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law. He received a Master of Laws degree in international economic law and European law from The London School of Economics, and attended The Hague Academy of International Law on a Loridans Foundation scholarship.
He served as legislative counsel to the Ways and Means Committee of the United States House of Representatives, where he assisted in drafting foreign trade legislation, principally the Trade Act of 1974. Mr. Johnson also served as a judge advocate in the U.S. Air Force, and following his military service, he was employed by Continental Bank in Chicago, specializing in international finance law. In 1980, he began private law practice first with the law firm of Powell, Goldstein, Frazer, and Murphy in Atlanta and later his own firm in northeast Georgia.
In 1987, he was elected to serve in the Georgia Senate. During the six years he was in the state Senate, he was selected as one of the Governor's Floor Leaders, Vice Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and in his last term in office, as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee. He was the original author of major legislation enacted to reform the state budget process, the ethical standards of public officials, sovereign immunity and rural telecommunications. He also chaired a study committee on export promotion, spurring reforms in Georgia's export promotion programs.
During his service in the U.S.House of Representatives, he served on the Armed Services and Science, Space and Technology Committees. He was also selected as a member of the Speaker's Working Group on Policy and as a delegate to the North Atlantic Assembly. In the latter capacity, he was a member of a team of NATO country legislators that monitored the first Russian parliamentary elections in December 1993. He was an active member of the Textile Caucus and assisted in the whip organizations promoting GATT and NAFTA.
Mr. Johnson and his wife Suzanne currently maintain their residence on a farm in Hart County, Georgia. They have three children.