Public Citizen Foundation, Inc.

"There are few nonprofits that have focused on the broad systemic problems posed by a deregulated financial environment," said Todd Tucker, research director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. "Our mission is to ensure that in this era of globalization, a majority has the opportunity to enjoy America's promises."

Global Trade Watch (GTW) is a project of Public Citizen Foundation, Inc., a national, non-profit consumer advocacy organization. In 1995, Public Citizen established GTW to promote government and corporate accountability in the globalization and trade arena. Since then, GTW has sought to democratize the global trade model by monitoring its outcomes and pressing government leaders for its reform.

On a broad level, GTW works to change the public's perception of globalization as an immutable trend. "Corporations advanced the notion that their favored model of globalization is an unstoppable force," said Tucker.  GTW works to correct this view "by showing that NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement] and WTO [the World Trade Organization] represent a certain set of rules that can easily be replaced with different rules that advance the public interest."

In the United States, GTW advocates for these changes on nearly every level, from grassroots to congressional. It has published innumerable reports and memos on global trade organizations such as the WTO, NAFTA, and the Free Trade Area of the Americas. In May, it culminated its unprecedented research on global trade in a book on executive power over trade called The Rise and Fall of Fast Track Trade Authority. Most recently, it has praised the TRADE Act, "which would, among other things, spell out once and for all what can be in a good trade deal."

The work of GTW reaches well beyond the traditional bounds of trade issues. "The path to a sane climate policy is riddled with trade policy landmines," said Tucker. With the US Congress taking up cap-and-trade legislation and the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen set for November 2009, GTW is working to clear that path. By challenging problematic trade conditions, such as the WTO's intellectual property pact, GTW helps developing countries achieve tangible advances toward sustainability, like free access to clean technology.