Timothy John Groser (born 6 March 1950) is a New Zealand politician and diplomat. A member of the New Zealand National Party, Groser was a Member of Parliament between 2005 and 2015, and a cabinet minister between 2008 and 2015. He resigned from Parliament on 19 December 2015 to take up the role of New Zealand's ambassador to the United States of America.

Early years

He was born in Perth, Scotland and came to New Zealand with his parents in 1958. After completing his education at

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well kno ...

he served as a policy adviser in a number of key departments including

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or i ...

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade may refer to: * Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (Jamaica) * Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (New Zealand) * Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (South Korea) South Korea's Ministry of ...

, and the Prime Minister's Advisory Group under Robert Muldoon. In the 1980s he was appointed New Zealand's chief agricultural negotiator in the

GATT The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is a legal agreement between many countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas. According to its prea ...

Uruguay round before being promoted to Chief Negotiator midway through negotiations. He subsequently became New Zealand's ambassador to

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

from 1994 to 1997. Since then Groser has served as New Zealand's Ambassador to the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and ...

(WTO) and as the WTO's chairman of agricultural negotiations. He was heavily involved in the

Doha round The Doha Development Round or Doha Development Agenda (DDA) is the trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which commenced in November 2001 under then director-general Mike Moore. Its objective was to lower trade barriers ...

of discussions.

Member of Parliament

In 2005 Groser opted to leave the civil service and run for Parliament. He was selected to stand as a list-only candidate for the National Party in the 2005 election. He was placed 13th on the list and as a result was comfortably elected. After the 2008 election he was given a Cabinet position with the Conservation and Trade portfolios. Groser made international headlines in late 2012 when he said that the New Zealand Government would not sign up for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. Tim Groser said the 15-year-old agreement was outdated, and that New Zealand was "ahead of the curve" in looking for a replacement that would include developing nations. Tim Groser Director-Gen selection process 2013

Tim Groser Director-Gen selection process 2013

In December 2012, the New Zealand Government announced that it was supporting Groser's bid to become the next

Director-General of the World Trade Organization The director-general of the World Trade Organization is the officer of the World Trade Organization (WTO) responsible for supervising and directing the organization's administrative operations. Since the World Trade Organization's decisions are ...

, a position which became vacant at the end of May 2013 with the retirement of

Pascal Lamy Pascal Lamy (born 8 April 1947) is a French political consultant and businessman. He was the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from 1 September 2005 to 1 September 2013 for 8 years. In April 2009, WTO members reappointed La ...

. Groser's bid was eventually unsuccessful and the Brazilian diplomat

Roberto Azevêdo Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo (; born 3 October 1957) is a Brazilian career diplomat who served as Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from 2013 until 2020. Since 2020, he has been Executive Vice President and Director of Corpo ...

was elected as the Director General of the WTO in May 2013. On 22 March 2015, Edward Snowden's

The Intercept ''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing news website founded by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras and funded by billionaire eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar. Its current editor is Betsy Reed. The publication initially reporte ...

news website claimed that New Zealand's signals intelligence agency, the

Government Communications Security Bureau The Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) ( mi, Te Tira Tiaki) is the public-service department of New Zealand charged with promoting New Zealand's national security by collecting and analysing information of an intelligence nature. ...

, had spied on other WTO directorship contenders on behalf of Groser. Known targets included candidates from

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, Costa Rica,

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

. Despite no official announcement having been made, New Zealand media reported earlier in 2015 that Groser was "widely expected" to replace Mike Moore as

ambassador to the United States The following table lists ambassadors to the United States, sorted by the representative country or organization. See also *Ambassadors of the United States Notes {{reflist, 30em External linksCurrent and former Ambassadors to the United Sta ...

. This was confirmed by prime minister

John Key Sir John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is a New Zealand retired politician who served as the 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2008 to 2016 and as Leader of the New Zealand National Party from 2006 to 2016. After resigning from bo ...

on 7 December 2015, with Groser relinquishing his roles on 14 December. Groser will take up his post as ambassador in early 2016. In July 2015, Groser said he believed reasonable people were being "whipped up into a frenzy" over issues like pharmaceutical costs and investor-state dispute settlement by people who, for ideological reasons, oppose the

Trans-Pacific Partnership The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), or Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, was a highly contested proposed trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim economies, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Sin ...

(TPP) trade agreement. He resigned from Parliament on 19 December 2015 to take up the role of New Zealand's ambassador to the United States of America.

Personal life

Groser converted to Islam to marry Milda Emza, an Indonesian Muslim and his second wife, in 1996, during his tenure as ambassador to Indonesia. They are no longer married.

References

*''Portions of this article are based on

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

text fro
The National Party
''

External links

Profile
at National party * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Groser, Tim 1950 births Living people New Zealand National Party MPs New Zealand public servants Scottish emigrants to New Zealand People from Perth, Scotland Victoria University of Wellington alumni Permanent Representatives of New Zealand to the World Trade Organization New Zealand list MPs Ambassadors of New Zealand to Indonesia Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives 21st-century New Zealand politicians Ambassadors of New Zealand to the United States