ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that global trade expert language plays a social role in constituting trade policy communities, because the ability to speak the language signals an individuals belonging to the global elite of trade policymakers and experts. It talks about the literature that is engaged in unpacking the political foundations of technocratic language in economic policy. A number of studies in the trade literature have produced insights into how linguistic practices within global trade governance affect its course. Rorden Wilkinson analyzes what he calls, the way people talk about trade and critiques its impact on trade political processes, notably at the World Trade Organization (WTO). International trade negotiations between the European Union (EU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in which a network of West African global social justice movements took a critical stance towards the global trade agenda. In global trade expert language, three broad categories of expert terminology exist: acronyms, legal-administrative codes, and concepts.
