Dale McNiel

DALE EDWIN MCNIEL

1948 – 2015

Center Point

Dale Edwin McNiel, Washington lawyer and specialist on international trade and agricultural policy, passed away June 8, 2015, at his home in Alexandria, Va., due to complications from Lyme disease. Mr. McNiel was 66.

He was born on Dec. 4, 1948, in Duluth, Minn., one of six children of Clarence and Doris (Williams) McNiel. The family moved to Center Point, Iowa, where Mr. McNiel attended elementary, junior high and high school at Center Point Consolidated School. He was elected president of the student body, president of his senior class and junior class and was the valedictorian of his graduating class. After high school, he attended the University of Iowa, where he majored in political science, with a focus on international relations and comparative political systems. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated summa cum laude in 1971.

After college, Mr. McNiel moved to Chicago and studied law the University of Chicago Law School, where he earned his J.D., graduating in 1976. He passed the Illinois State Bar examination and began his practice in Chicago working on complex civil litigation.

In 1978, he moved to Mount Pleasant, Mich., to take a position as assistant professor in the school of business administration at Central Michigan University, where he taught courses in international trade and business with an emphasis on the operation and rules of the multilateral trading system.

After six years in academic life, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he began a long career of law practice in international trade law and agricultural policy. He began working initially at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service, where he did regulatory work and arbitration, but subsequently moved to the USDA's office of the general counsel. From 1987 to 1997, Mr. McNiel practiced in the international affairs and commodity programs division where he was the chief legal advisor to the department in its operation of the U.S. national sugar program. He also served as a legal advisor to the department on international trade rules, in particular those involving the most significant multilateral trade treaty, the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT). In 1989, Mr. McNiel was appointed by U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills to be a member of the U.S. negotiating team for agriculture during the GATT Uruguay Round negotiations, which resulted in the formation of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Between 1989 and 1994, he helped to draft and shape U.S. proposals in the agricultural negotiations, traveled regularly to Geneva, Switzerland, and Brussels, Belgium, to assist and advise senior U.S. trade officials and participated in bilateral negotiations with Europe, Japan and Cairns Group countries. Mr. McNiel also participated on the legal teams that drafted and presented the winning U.S. arguments in a number of GATT, WTO and NAFTA dispute panel cases, including Canada Ice Cream and Yogurt Import Quotas; U.S. Quotas on Sugar and Sugar-Containing Products; European Union Ban on Beef Produced with Hormones; Korean Shelf-Life Requirements; and Korean Inspection Measures on Agricultural Products.

During his 13 years of government service at USDA, Mr. McNiel was recognized on 11 occasions for his work, receiving a USDA DpAward.

In 1997, Mr. McNiel left USDA to re-enter the private practice of law and in 2000, he established his own law practice. Over the last 18 years, he advised many clients on agricultural and trade law issues and was an active litigator. His clients included the U.S. Beet Sugar Association, the American Sugarbeet Growers Association, American Sugar Alliance, Louis Dreyfus Sugar Company, Sucden Americas Sugar Company, E.D.F. and Man Sugar Company and a number of other entities in the U.S sugar industry whom he advised both on the legal aspects of the U.S. domestic sugar program, and on international trade policy issues. He also represented the Mexican Hass Avocado Importers Association (MHAIA); the Avocado Producers, Packers and Exporters Association of Mexico (APEAM); the Chilean Pork and Poultry Associations; Mueller Water Products; the Florida Department of Citrus; United Source One; the Lemon Industry Association of Argentina; and a number of other agricultural and international trade interests in both the United States and abroad.

In addition to the Illinois bar, Mr. McNiel was also admitted to practice in the District of Columbia. He lectured on international trade law issues in China, Japan, Russia, Bulgaria, Algeria, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador, as well as at many professional meetings in the United States. His writings on international trade issues have been published in various law journals, including the Yale Journal of International Law; the Minnesota Journal of Global Trade; the Virginia Journal of International Law; and the North Carolina Journal of International Law & Commerce.

Mr. McNiel was an enthusiastic world traveler both in his professional and personal life and visited more than 60 countries as well as 48 states. He was an active outdoor enthusiast who biked across the state of Iowa, hiked down and up the Grand Canyon, along the Appalachian Trail and the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. After the age of 50, he learned to ski, to rollerblade, to play tennis and to wind surf. He loved the arts and was an annual subscriber to the theater, ballet, symphony, opera and film society.

Mr. McNiel is survived by his wife, Jenny Marion McNiel; his brother, Bob McNiel of Midway, Ky.; sister-in-law, Pat, and nieces, Kathryn Fields and Kristine McNiel; his sister, Nancy Willert of Frankfort, Ky., and brother-in-law Jim; his sister, Carol Dustman of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and brother-in-law, Gary; and his sister, Opal McNiel of Marion, Iowa, and nieces, Melissa Hassebrock and Carly Ringgenberg.

A Celebration of Life will be held from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, June 27, at the Cedar Rapids Public Library, 450 Fifth Ave. SE, upstairs in Beems Conference Room B. Refreshments will be served.

A memorial fund has been established and donations can be mailed to Opal McNiel, 1460 Parkview Dr., Marion, IA 52302.