History of the World Trade Institute
For many years, international trade regulation was largely absent in curricula of legal education. It was hardly dealt with in international law courses and research was rather marginal, at least in law. Globalization and regionalization obliged to enhance education and training from the angles of economics, law and international relations. As a result, the World Trade Institute (WTI) was founded upon the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of the GATT and the advent of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. The Institute was established in 1999 to train future practitioners and researchers from all over the world and to strengthen research capacities in what increasingly affects people. The financial crisis in 2008 witnessed the importance of a stable and open multilateral trading system under the auspices of the WTO and organizations and agreements on regional integration.
The WTI is a centre of excellence of the University of Bern, Switzerland, and a forum for interdisciplinary research, training and advisory services in the ever expanding field of international trade regulation. An international and multidisciplinary group of some 50 academics, 40 students and professionals from the disciplines of law, economics, and international relations work at the WTI. The aim is to make a durable contribution to global capacity building in trade governance. The law and policies of the European Union play an important role. In teaching, research, and consulting, we aim to contribute to the elaboration of global rules in a widening field, encompassing trade, investment, environmental and human rights concerns.
Filling the Gap: Education and Research in International Trade Regulation
The Institute’s educational flagship is the Master of International Law and Economics (MILE) – one of the world’s leading programmes of advanced studies in international trade regulation. This intensive one year master programme comprises weekly modules taught by many of the world’s foremost academics, senior trade officials and private sector practitioners. The MILE modules are also open to interested professionals and students. The more than 320 MILE alumni form a vibrant international community dedicated to the dissemination of trade-related technical knowledge and expertise. Furthermore, the WTI delivers an annual five-week Summer Academy on cutting-edge issues in international trade regulation. Responding to the deficit in trade-related technical knowledge and expertise afflicting many developing countries, the WTI also provides distance learning courses in cooperation with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. Jointly with the Swiss State Secretariat of Economic Affairs the WTI is involved in a four-year academic cooperation project to establish regional competence centres in Peru, South Africa and Vietnam. This supplements a range of trade-related academic networks in which Institute faculty and researchers take part around the globe.
Tackling regulatory challenges
International trade regulation transcends law and politics. The rules and principles of the WTO provide the main institutional framework of many potentially applicable international regimes. Since 2005, the WTI has hosted the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research on Trade Regulation (NCCR Trade Regulation) to study such trends. This project aims to develop long-term solutions and innovative policy recommendations that improve the balance between economic and other regulatory objectives in an evolving architecture of regional and multilateral trade rules.
NCCR Trade Regulation currently addresses six broad thematic research areas featuring 50 sub-units and involving a global network of more than 80 researchers. Themes related to trade include governance, preferential trade, innovation and creativity in international trade, trade, development and migration, trade and climate change, as well as impact assessment in international trade regulation.
