Rosemina Nathoo is Principal & International Legal Counsel at the Centre for Trade Policy and Law (CTPL).
She has 25 years of experience in law, trade negotiations, international development, issues management at the political level, and strategic planning. She designs and delivers executive-level training programs for government officials and trade policy practitioners on how to conduct trade negotiations, how to negotiate draft text; and, advises governments on the implementation of their trade negotiation strategies.
Rosemina serves as Adjunct Professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA) where she teaches trade negotiations and international law.
From 2017-2024, Rosemina led the implementation of the Trade Negotiations Skills Training Project with UK’s Department for Business and Trade. At CTPL, Rosemina has served as International Legal Counsel, Associate Director, and Director of the trade law components of capacity building projects in Africa, Central America, China, Russia, and Bangladesh. She was invited to be a lead trade law advisor on the African Union Commission’s Expert Review Group that advised on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) negotiations. From September 2020 to June 2021, she was also International Co-Trainer on the EU Arise Plus Project for Cambodia, supported by the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ).
Rosemina was Director of the Office of Legal Affairs and Secretary to the Board at University of Central Asia (UCA) in Kyrgyzstan. Prior to joining UCA, she was part of the corporate start-up teams to establish the Global Centre for Pluralism in Ottawa and the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. Rosemina also enjoyed the privilege of working on Canada’s Parliament Hill as Chief of Staff on the Intergovernmental Affairs and Labour Ministerial portfolios.
She serves as Chair of the Board of Ryan’s Well Foundation, a Canadian charity providing access to safe water and improved sanitation for vulnerable communities in Africa.
She is a Barrister & Solicitor with the Law Society of Ontario. She holds an LL.B. from the University of Ottawa and an M.A. in International Affairs from Carleton University.
Phil Rourke is Principal at CTPL
Phil Rourke has 30+ years of experience in delivering professional training courses and institutional capacity building projects on trade policy and negotiation issues in all regions of the world. He is Adjunct Professor with the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA) at Carleton University teaching trade policy and trade negotiations and instructor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) and the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa.
Phil served as Project Director from 2018-2026 for both the Canadian Trade and Investment Facility for Development (CTIF) – a technical assistance fund to assist Asia-Pacific developing countries with their trade and development strategies – and the Expert Deployment Mechanism for Trade and Development (EDM), a technical assistance fund to assist Canada’s developing country trading partners with the design, negotiation, and implementation of their trade agreement strategies with Canada. Both projects were sponsored by Global Affairs Canada. From 2017 to 2024, Phil was co-instructor of an annual series of fundamental and bespoke courses and simulations to support the UK Department for Business and Trade in negotiating and implementing the UK government’s post-Brexit trade negotiation strategy. He served for four years as Principal Advisor and Lecturer at the Shridath Ramphal Centre at the University of the West Indies in Barbados. Phil holds an M.B.A. from Queen’s University in Kingston and an M.A. in International Affairs from Carleton University.
ACADEMIC ADVISOR
Meredith Lilly
Meredith Lilly (PhD, University of Toronto) is the Simon Reisman Chair in International Economic Policy and Professor of International Affairs at Carleton University.
Meredith previously served as Foreign Affairs and International Trade Advisor to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, overseeing within the Prime Minister’s Office the conclusion of Canada’s free-trade negotiations with the European Union, South Korea, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership among others. Her research is focused on North American trade relations, the intersection of trade policy with labour and environment, economic sanctions, and border issues. Dr. Lilly is a member of the Advisory Council of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, the Deputy Minister of Trade’s Advisory Council on International Trade, and the North American Forum.