The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a Washington-based think tank, has launched the Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance. The alliance is an international network of think tanks that conduct evidence-based research into policies that can foster greater trade liberalization, curb innovation mercantilism, and encourage governments to play proactive roles in spurring innovation and productivity.

The alliance includes ten founding members from the Americas, Europe, and Asia. It will continue to add new members in coming months.

“In the last 20 years, the global economy has become tightly integrated as crossborder trade has drawn countries together and created new opportunities to boost growth and development,” said Stephen Ezell, ITIF’s vice president for global innovation policy, who is spearheading this effort. “Globalization can generate lasting, worldwide prosperity, but only if all countries share a commitment to playing by the rules and fostering across-the-board, innovation-based growth strategies. We are launching the alliance to help address these issues, which we view as the great economic challenge of our times.”

All Alliance members have signed a Statement of Shared Principles, with the goal of advancing a global agenda that encourages greater market- and rules-based global competition and trade liberalization, while at the same time championing a vital, constructive role for governments in accelerating growth and prosperity through greater innovation.

The founding members of the Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance include think tanks from Canada, Poland, Mexico, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, China, Sweden, and Colombia.

The Alliance will highlight and cross-pollinate member organizations’ work on crossborder trade, globalization, and innovation policy, and create opportunities to collaborate on events, research and reports, and policy development on related topics.

“We hope that by joining together, the Alliance will be a one-stop-shop for policymakers looking to seize the benefits of maximizing global innovation: improved standards of living in more-developed and less-developed countries alike,” concluded Ezell.