Staff
Lilibeth Almonte-Arbez
Senior Director
Lilibeth Almonte-Arbez joined the Council in September 2018 and now serves as a Senior Director in the Washington, DC office. She specializes in international trade policy and international law. Prior to her role at the Council, she was Director for International Economic Policy & Negotiations at the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs and headed the Economic Section at the Philippine embassies in Washington, DC and Stockholm, Sweden. She has negotiated bilateral and regional free trade agreements with ASEAN, the EU, Japan, and Hong Kong including the 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). She managed trade in services issues at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).
She started her public service career as an attorney handling treaty, consular, and administrative law.
She is admitted to the Philippine bar and New York State bar. Lilibeth has a Master of Laws in International Legal Studies from Georgetown University and was a Fellow at the Institute of International Economic Law. She is also a proud alumna of the University of the Philippines College of Law and the Ateneo de Manila University.
