Global Trade Alert

Neil worked with the leading think tank Centre for Economic Policy Research, to develop this site which allows academics in seven centres around the world to monitor protectionist trade measures. This site was part of the UK Government’s World Trade Week initiative and was launched by Lord Mandelson. The site has several outstanding features.

Extensive Taxonomisation

To enable efficient categorisation of the vast numbers of measures tracked on GTA, a sophisticated, standards based taxonomy was needed. Measures are described by five taxonomies:

• Affected Jurisdictions (239 countries based on UN M49 standard)
• Implementing Jurisdiction (239 countries based on UN M49 standard)
• Measure type (26 measure types, determined by GTA trade economists)
• Sector (93 sectors based on 2 digit CPCprov standard)
• Tariff Line (1214 products based on 4 digit SITC standard)

Statistics from Content

One of the goals of the site was to make all the data as easily accessible as possible. This is done in two ways. First, advanced search allows users to use fine-grained filters to find a very specific set of measures.

Second, comprehensive statistics are generated from the measures and associated meta data. These statistics are then outputed in sortable tables, with option of exporting as CSV files.

Implementing this functionality required the creation of custom modules which made use of a large number of complex MySQL queries.  

Email Alerts When Content Changes

The measures in the database are continually updated to reflect any policy changes or new analytical insights. Registered users are able to subscribe to email updates whenever any measures are altered. They have the choice of subscribing to the individual measure or any related taxonomy, e.g. for a given sector or affected jurisdiction.

Client Benefit

Global Trade Alert has received significant media coverage including the Financial Times , Wall Street Journal and BBC World Service. It has been credited as a key tool in discovering and tracking protectionist trade policy. Since its launch in June 2009, it has received more than 25,500 unique visitors with a regularly returning audience of around 1,500 users.