The Global Trade Governance Project was established in 2007 to foster research and debate on how to make global trade governance work for development. The three core objectives of the project are:

• to conduct and foster research into global trade governance, with a special focus on WTO reform from the perspective of developing countries and the goal of sustainable development;
• to create and maintain a network of scholars and policy-makers working on these issues;
• to strengthen and influence debate among scholars, policymakers and NGOs regarding global trade governance through a series of lectures, policy dialogues and seminars in Geneva, Oxford and developing country capitals.

The Project will draw on researchers with expertise in international relations, political science, development studies, economics, and international law – and will seek to draw on the experience and input of policy practitioners, particularly those from developing countries.

The work of the Project includes several sub-projects and partnerships with research centres, including the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies at the University of Geneva, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), and the South Centre – an intergovernmental organization of developing countries. At Oxford, the Project is directly linked to Oxford University’s Department of Politics and International Relations and Centre for International Studies – and participates in a project on the roles of the EU and US in the reform of the WTO at the European Studies Centre.

Sub-projects underway or completed include:

1. Rebuilding Global Trade After the Crisis (with ICTSD);
2. Strengthening Multilateralism by Improving WTO Governance;
3. Constraints Facing Small States in International Trade Negotiations (with the Commonwealth Secretariat);
4. Regional Dialogues on Global Trade Governance;
5. Joint initiative on Trade and Global Economic Governance (with the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies and the South Centre) (completed in early 2009).