Erin Norma Hannah is Associate Professor at King's University College at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.

Silke Trommer is University Lecturer in Global Sustainable Development and World Politics at the University of Helsinki, Finland.

James Scott is Lecturer in International Politics in the Department of Political Economy at King's College London, UK.

Part 1. The language of expert knowledge: the power of discourse, metaphors, and myth-making 1. Talking trade: common sense knowledge in the multilateral trade regime RORDEN WILKINSON 2. The specter of Smooth-Hawley and the global trading system: sustaining free trade through the crisis GABRIEL SILES-BRÜGGE 3. Trade policy communities, expert language, and the dehumanization of world trade SILKE TROMMER Part 2. The agency of expert knowledge: the power of critical technicians, embedded NGOs, and organic intellectuals 4. Expertise through experience: inequality and legitimacy in the juridification of international trade disputing JOSEPH CONTI 5.Numbers: the role of computable general equilibrium modeling in legitimizing trade policy CLIVE GEORGE 6. The double movement of law and expertise ANDREW LANG Part 3. The substance of expert knowledge: the power of law and econometrics in knowledge production 7. Symbolic power and social critique in the making of Oxfam's trade policy research MATTHEW EAGLETON-PIERCE 8. Ratcheting up accountability? Embedded NGOs in the multilateral trade system ERIN HANNAH 9. Southern intellectual leadership in the construction of global trade knowledge JAMES SCOTT Part 4. Conclusion Erin Hannah, James Scott and Silke Trommer

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.