Remaking the Global Trading System for a Sustainable Future Project

The Remaking Global Trade for a Sustainable Future Project aims to rethink the foundations for international commerce and develop a WTO reform agenda to better position this critical international organization to meet the needs of the current moment and better align the trading system with the world community’s commitment to a sustainable future. The Project will map out where the world needs to go over the next decade to address economic inequality, achieve the transition to a clean energy future, and advance other dimensions of the sustainable development vision – and specify what the trading system’s role should be in promoting the transformation required. It will also explore the reasons that the trade regime has come under political attack and how the WTO’s direction, structure, and rules might be reconfigured to respond. It will further identify other entities, institutions, and international organizations with which those in the trade world should work to deliver the requisite reforms  – as well as champions who can lead this effort both inside and outside the trading system.

Led by Professor Dan Esty at the Yale School of the Environment and Yale Law School, Professor Diana Van Patten at the Yale School of Management, Professor Joel Trachtman and Dean Rachel Kyte at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and Jan Yves Remy, Director of the University of the West Indies International Trade Law, Policy, and Services in Barbados, the Remaking Trade Project will also engage with thought leaders across the world in an effort to re-think the intellectual logic and economic underpinnings of global trade with an eye toward broadening public understanding and political support around the world for a re-geared structure of trade and improved global governance as critical elements of an environmentally secure, prosperous, equitable, and peaceful world.

Click to view Project Summary

Steering Committee

The Remaking the Global Trading System for a Sustainable Future Project is guided by a Steering Committee that draws from leaders with a diverse range of experience, backgrounds, and expertise. This group is responsible for guiding the development of a reform framework and cultivating a next generation of trade leaders who will prioritize the sustainability imperative and the need to manage trade consistent with other critical societal goals including climate change action, worker impacts, poverty alleviation, human rights protection and public health collaboration.

Steering Committee

  • Monica Araya

    Distinguished Fellow at ClimateWorks Foundation; Member Board of Directors at the Natural Resource Governance Institute; Senior Strategist at Utgard AS

  • James Bacchus

    Former U.S. congressman; Director for the Center for Global Economic and Environmental Opportunity at the University of Central Florida

  • Kimberly Botwright

    Head of Sustainable Trade at the World Economic Forum

  • James Cameron

    Member of the Board of Trustees, ODI; Advisory Board Member, Climate Bonds Initiative

  • Kathleen Claussen

    Professor at Georgetown University Law Center; former Associate General Counsel at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

  • Aaron Cosbey

    Senior Associate at the International Institute for Sustainable Development; President, Small World Sustainability Consulting

  • Thomas Cottier

    Emeritus Professor at University of Bern; Senior Research Fellow at World Trade Institute

  • Carolyn Deere Birkbeck

    Executive Director and Founder, Forum on Trade, Environment & the SDGs (TESS); Senior Researcher at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies

  • Henry Gao

    Professor of Law at Singapore Management University

  • Maria Ivanova

    Professor and Director of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University

  • Alejandro Jara

    Partner, Vasquez Urra Abogados; Former WTO Deputy Director-General

  • Bukola Jejeloye

    Managing Director and Founder, Offline Diplomat

  • Pascal Lamy

    Former WTO Director-General

  • Johanna Lorenzo

    Assistant Professor in Public International Law, University of Amsterdam

  • Tim Meyer

    Professor of Law at Duke Law School

  • James Mwangi

    Founder and CEO of Africa Climate Ventures; Founder of Climate Action Platform for Africa (CAP-A)

  • James Nedumpara

    Professor and Executive Director, Centre for International Trade and Economic Laws (CITEL) and Jindal Global Law School

  • Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann

    Professor of Law at European University Institute

  • Glenn Prickett

    Chief Executive Officer, Gulf of Maine Research Institute

  • Jan Yves Remy

    Director, Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy and Services, University of West Indies

  • Mark Ritchie

    Chair, World's Fair Bid Committee Education Fund; Former Minnesota Secretary of State

  • Sonia Rolland

    Law Professor at Northeastern University School of Law

  • Debra Steger

    Emeritus Professor in international economic law, University of Ottawa

  • Simon Tay

    Associate Professor, Singapore Institute of International Affairs, National University of Singapore

  • Joel Trachtman

    Henry J. Braker Professor of Law at Tufts University - the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

  • Andres Valenciano Yamuni

    Director-Head of Office, ECLAC

  • John Weekes

    Former Canadian Ambassador to the WTO (1995-1999) Ambassador to the GATT (1987 – 1991); Chair of GATT Council (1989); Senior International Trade Policy Adviser

  • Han-Koo Yeo

    Former Korean Minister of Trade; PIIE Senior Fellow; Harvard Kennedy School Senior Fellow

  • Rufus Yerxa

    Former WTO Deputy Director-General; former President of the National Foreign Trade Council; Independent Consultant