The Remaking the Global Trading System for a Sustainable Future Project
About Us
The Remaking Trade Project works to advance pathways that align global trade with sustainable development. Launched in June 2021, our work is grounded in the sustainable development mandate of the World Trade Organization’s 1994 Marrakesh Agreement.
Our vision is a trusted and fair global trade system that actively advances economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainable development.
Our mission is to accelerate and support the reshaping of global trade governance by strengthening the broad public, private and civil society ecosystem of actors working to ensure that the trade system enhances sustainable development.
Our Collaborators
The Remaking Trade Project is a collaboration among the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy and Services at the University of the West Indies and other partners around the world. The Project brings together a wide variety of stakeholders—including policymakers, researchers/academics, international organization officials, environmental advocates, and private sector representatives— to strengthen the role of trade in advancing sustainable development.
An Agenda for Reform of the Multilateral Trade System
Our flagship report, the Villars Framework for Trade System Reform, was produced through collaboration with more than 400 experts around the world and provides a practical roadmap for reshaping global trade governance. Now in its third iteration, this trade system reform agenda aims to reinvigorate the WTO, strengthen the legitimacy of the trade system, and rebuild public and political confidence by demonstrating that trade can deliver real sustainable development outcomes.
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.
Distinguished Fellow at ClimateWorks Foundation; Member Board of Directors at the Natural Resource Governance Institute; Senior Strategist at Utgard AS
Monica Araya
Former U.S. congressman; Director for the Center for Global Economic and Environmental Opportunity at the University of Central Florida
James Bacchus
Head of Sustainable Trade at the World Economic Forum
Kimberly Botwright
James Cameron
Member of the Board of Trustees, ODI; Advisory Board Member, Climate Bonds Initiative
Professor at Georgetown University Law Center; former Associate General Counsel at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Kathleen Claussen
Senior Associate at the International Institute for Sustainable Development; President, Small World Sustainability Consulting
Aaron Cosbey
Thomas Cottier
Emeritus Professor at University of Bern; Senior Research Fellow at World Trade Institute
Executive Director and Founder, Forum on Trade, Environment & the SDGs (TESS); Senior Researcher at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
Carolyn Deere Birkbeck
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
Former WTO Director-General
Pascal Lamy
Assistant Professor in Public International Law, University of Amsterdam
Johanna Lorenzo
Tim Meyer
Professor of Law at Duke Law School
Founder and CEO of Africa Climate Ventures; Founder of Climate Action Platform for Africa (CAP-A)
James Mwangi
Professor and Executive Director, Centre for International Trade and Economic Laws (CITEL) and Jindal Global Law School
James Nedumpara
Professor of Law at European University Institute
Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann
Chief Executive Officer, Gulf of Maine Research Institute
Glenn Prickett
Director, Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy and Services, University of West Indies
Jan Yves Remy
Chair, World's Fair Bid Committee Education Fund; Former Minnesota Secretary of State
Mark Ritchie
Law Professor at Northeastern University School of Law
Sonia Rolland
Emeritus Professor in international economic law, University of Ottawa
Debra Steger
Associate Professor, Singapore Institute of International Affairs, National University of Singapore
Simon Tay
Emeritus Professor in international economic law, University of Ottawa
Joel Trachtman
Director-Head of Office, ECLAC
Andres Valenciano Yamuni
Former Canadian Ambassador to the WTO (1995-1999) Ambassador to the GATT (1987 – 1991); Chair of GATT Council (1989); Senior International Trade Policy Adviser
John Weekes
Han-Koo Yeo
Former Korean Minister of Trade; PIIE Senior Fellow; Harvard Kennedy School Senior Fellow
Former WTO Deputy Director-General; former President of the National Foreign Trade Council; Independent Consultant