Widad Soufi
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Agricultural and Applied Economics / Morocco

I was born in Casablanca, Morocco in 1969. After graduating from High School in a French Institution in 1987, I joined the Hassan II Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine where I earned a M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics in 1993. My research thesis was on the economic assessment of the impact of credit on sheep and goat farming in two semi-arid regions of Morocco.

I pursued my studies in the Paris-Grignon National Agronomic Institute where I obtained a graduate degree in Agricultural Development in 1994. My research involved a six-month stay in South America to conduct an agrarian diagnostic of the area of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. Between 1995 and 1997 I worked at the Ministry of Foreign Trade where my work was centered at the free trade agreement between Morocco and the European Union. I participated in the preparation of the negotiations, negotiated the annex to the agreement on rules of origin and communicated the content of the agreement when signed in 1996. I was also a member of the committee that represented Morocco at the World Customs Organization to negotiate the WTO agreement on rules of origin.

Between 1997 and 1999 I worked at the Customs Service where I was involved in the implementation of a number of WTO agreements in Morocco but mainly working on the WTO agreement on rules of origin as I led the Moroccan delegation at the World Customs Organization.

Feeling the need to acquire more education in order to reach a deeper and more comprehensive level of understanding of international trade, I left Morocco for Virginia Tech where I obtained a M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics in 2001. I found Virginia Tech to be a great place to prepare myself before moving to a high-quality institution for a Ph.D. program in Agricultural Economics.

I am now at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. I passed my theory and field preliminary examinations and am in the process of writing a research proposal that I am hoping to defend before the Compton Gathering takes place. My research topic can be grossly defined as an evaluation of the economic impacts on the Moroccan economy of the free trade agreements that Morocco signed with the EU and the U.S. Upon graduating, I plan to join an institution of higher education to teach and pursue my research on international trade in Morocco and a broader area.