Elizabeth Chelliah is currently the Principal Trade Specialist (PTS) at the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) of Singapore. Elizabeth has covered a range of portfolios over her 29 years in the Singapore Civil Service that commenced in April 1995. Starting as Legal Officer for the then Trade Development Board, Elizabeth made the switch to a trade policy officer when she was posted to the Singapore Mission to the WTO in 1998. She has covered WTO issues focusing on all matters relating to trade in goods, WTO DSB and WTO accessions. She has also been involved as a panelist in several WTO DSB panels. From 2005 to 2011 she was part of the Singapore APEC team involved in Singapore’s hosting of APEC in 2009 where she held the post of Chair of the Committee for Trade and Investment (CTI) from 2008-2010. She has had extensive involvement in FTA negotiations since 2002 including being the Chief Negotiator for Singapore’s FTA with Peru and the review of the Japan Singapore Economic Partnership Agreement. She has also chaired several FTA working groups such as the ASEAN-China Rules of Origin Working Group. In addition, her main involvement across more than 10 FTAs has been in leading several trade-in-goods chapters the last of which was the TPP (now called CPTPP) negotiations. Her last negotiating engagement was as Chair of the RCEP Intellectual Property Working Group that concluded in 2019. 

As PTS Ms Chelliah stewards the building and institutionalising of expertise amongst MTI Trade officers focusing on WTO and FTA rules. She is also an active trainer for the MFA Diplomatic Academy, the Singapore Civil Service College (CSC) and with the Centre for International Law (CIL). She has also remained engaged in other ad-hoc training projects such as the provision of capacity building to Timor Leste for their accession to the WTO. 

From March 2020, Elizabeth has also taken on a 50% trade consultancy role at Singapore Business Federation (SBF) guiding SBF in developing and delivering courses relating to on FTA usage for business. From 2024 this has expanded to cover activities under SBF Centre for the Future of Trade and Investment (CFOTI). This has led to numerous speaking and moderating engagements at various conferences and workshops. 

With effect from July 2025, Elizabeth has been appointed as an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Centre for Multilateralism Studies at Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS).