This book explores tensions in global trade by examining the role of experts in generating, disseminating and legitimating knowledge about the possibilities of trade to work for global development. To this end, contributors assess authoritative claims on knowledge. They also consider structural features that uphold trade experts’ monopoly over knowledge, such as expert language and legal and economic expertise. The chapters collectively explore the tensions between actors who seek to effect change and those who work to uphold the status quo, exacerbate asymmetries, and reinforce the dominant narrative of the global trade regime.

The book addresses the following key overarching research questions:

Who is considered to be a trade expert and how does one become a knowledge producer in global trade?

How do experts acquire, disseminate and legitimate knowledge?

What agendas are advanced by expert knowledge?

How does the discourse generated within trade expertise serve to close off alternative institutional pathways and modes of thinking?

What potential exists for the emergence of more emancipatory global trade policies from contemporary developments in the field of trade expertise?

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of IPE, Trade Politics, International Relations, and International Organizations.