Trade, Not Just Aid Winners and Losers of the WTO (TRaNJA)

Background and Rationale
The WTO has long provided stability and predictability to global trade, but rising protectionism and polarised debates on globalisation have weakened public trust. Despite its benefits, public understanding of the Multilateral Trading System remains limited.

While trade has generated employment, reduced poverty, and expanded consumer choice, many small producers and vulnerable communities still face adjustment pressures and competitiveness challenges. This divide underscores the need for an inclusive, evidence-based narrative that connects global trade rules with ground-level realities.

To address this Imperative, CUTS International is implementing this initiative, combining research, community engagement, and policy dialogues to document both opportunities and challenges of trade. The Steering Committee will be chaired by Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament of India, with former WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy as Co-Chair.

Goals: To enhance global understanding about the value of trade and the WTO by documenting real-world stories of trade’s winners and losers that reinforce the value of rules-based trade as a global public good

Objectives:

Illustrate WTO’s Benefits: Use case studies to demonstrate how rules-based trade contributes to growth, jobs, consumer welfare, and poverty reduction
Highlight Adjustment Challenges: Document the experiences of those adversely affected by trade and outline strategies for reskilling, social protection, and other support
Strengthen Awareness on the 3-Pillar Framework: Promote governance, fairness, and future-ready policies on digital, climate, and green transition
Promote Multi-level Engagement: Facilitate dialogues between grassroots communities and global policymakers to create actionable, inclusive trade narratives
Build Stakeholder Capacity: Empower consumers, MSMEs, farmers, workers, and the civil society with knowledge and tools to understand and engage with trade

Approach and Methodology

TRaNJA will follow CUTS RANC framework, which combines Research with Awareness Generation and Networking, leading to Capacity-building.
inform global trade debates, while strengthening understanding of the WTO/MTS.

Micro-level (Community Engagement): The micro-level component is about engaging grassroots communities through case studies, trained local animators, multilingual toolkits, and community workshops to document how trade affects diverse groups of stakeholders.
Macro-Level (Regional/Global Work): The macro-level component is to transform these insights into policy-relevant narratives through discussion papers, issue briefs, op-eds, multimedia outputs, high-level roundtables, and multi-stakeholder workshops with diplomats, policymakers, and experts.
Bridging Micro-Macro Gaps: Together, they will create a continuous two-way flow: grassroots experience to

Improved Public Understanding: Enhanced awareness of how WTO rules shape consumer welfare, employment, market access, and economic stability

Bridging Perception Gaps: Balanced narratives that recognise both benefits and adjustment challenges of trade

Strengthened Support for the WTO/MTS: Increased buy-in for rules-based trade as a global public good

Empowered Grassroots Stakeholders: Better capacity among workers, MSMEs, farmers, and consumers to understand and participate in trade policy discourse

Coming soon…