Christopher Abbott

Christopher Abbott is a Senior Advisor to Potomac International Partners. Previously, Christopher served as Deputy Director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy in the Trump Administration. In that role, he drafted the first internal memo to President Trump in January, 2020 warning that the U.S. was unprepared to respond to COVID-19, and highlighting the potential economic and human consequences the outbreak could have. He also led many of the Trump Administration’s efforts to secure the medical supplies necessary to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak and restore the U.S. medical industrial base. Christopher also drafted President Trump’s executive order to protect domestic supply chains for medical countermeasures, and served as the primary White House official involved in the effort to revamp the Strategic National Stockpile following the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to his efforts on the COVID-19 response, Christopher was also involved in several other high-level policy debates, including on trade, tariffs, China, and national security issues.

After leaving the White House, Christopher served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing in the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration. In this role, he managed a team of 45 civil-servants and committed significant agency resources to monitoring potential disruptions to medical supply chains. He also oversaw the Industry Trade Advisory Center (ITAC) on Health Services and Products, and partnered with HHS, DOD, and staff at the Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to review applications for billions of dollars of subsidized DFC loans that were made available to US corporations as part of the CARES Act.