Description
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the centre of global trade regulation, but a host of other organisations engage in knowledge transfer, expert opinion and analysis. They represent a wide range of political positions but collectively they advocate new areas of possible regulation and provide analysis of existing and proposed policies both to the public and to policymakers. This paper elucidates the role of these organisations in shaping, constructing and reifying trade narratives by examining how ideas travel and are developed through this trade ecosystem. We will construct a unique dataset comprising approximately 1000 documents prepared for textual analysis, taken from several key trade-related institutions. We will use the dataset to perform an R-based text analysis, complemented by more in-depth qualitative analysis, to explore the transfer of recent trade policies through the trade eco-system, covering: (i) the ‘Made in the World’ Initiative and associated rise of Global Value Chain analysis; (ii) the Trade and Gender agenda; and (iii) the incorporation of the ‘Financial Inclusion’ agenda. In so doing, we will identify how ideas get adopted, adapted, and leveraged within the trade community, and the processes in which certain interests are either privileged or marginalised.
