Maarten Smeets (PhD) is a senior associate at the Clingendael Academy, a non resident senior fellow at the World Trade Institute (WTI, Bern, Switzerland), guest Professor at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE in Beijing and SUIBE in Shanghai, China), a member of the steering committee of the G-20 Trade and Investment Research Network (TIRN), a lead on trade in the T-20 task forces (South Africa, Brazil), a fellow of the Institute for Globalization and International Regulation (Maastricht University, Netherlands) and the Salzburg Seminar (Austria).
For several years he was an associate professor at the St Petersburg State University, World Economy Department and a permanent board member of the IMF led Joint Vienna Institute (JVI). He holds a PhD from the Law Faculty (Maastricht University), a masters degree in economics (Tilburg) and degrees from the Graduate Institute for International Studies (Geneva) and the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA-Paris).
As head of section at the WTO, often acting as director, he was responsible for all field based Trade Capacity Building programs and the WTO Chairs Program (WCP), which he co-created and managed. The WCP is WTO’s flagship trade capacity building program, linking over 40 universities, think tanks and leading academics world-wide. He is a senior policy advisor to WTO Chairs in Asia, Latin America and Africa as well as to UNESCAP’s Artnet, and a frequent speaker at their conferences. He advises governments on trade policies, including WTO accessions and offers training on WTO topics, trade negotiations and techniques.
He has published in leading journals, authored and (co-) edited books on current trade issues (digital trade, inclusive growth, globalization, sanctions, WTO accession, structural reforms, developing countries). Before joining the WTO, he worked at the OECD’s Trade Department and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (Den Haag).