About The Consumers for World Trade Education Fund

Mission and Goals
Criteria for Library Resources
CWT Ed Fund Governance
CWT Ed Fund Board of Directors

The mission of the Consumers for World Trade Education Fund (CWT Ed Fund) is to educate communities in America about the benefits of international trade and investment and to address concerns about the global economy.

CWT Ed Fund Goals

• To achieve national recognition among consumers, students and academics, the press, and policymakers as the most reliable and complete source of information about global trade and investment and its impact on the national economy,
• To establish a contest for university-level students that will award monetary prizes for essays on international trade that the Board of Directors determines are analytically rigorous, thorough, accurate, and make an important contribution to current literature about international trade, investment, and globalization; and
• To establish trade clubs at leading universities nationwide that will enable college students to learn more about (1) the impact of trade in their lives and (2) careers that involve international trade.

CWT Ed Fund Works toward these Goals by:

• Sponsoring and managing Worldtradelibrary.com that provides comprehensive information on key topics in international trade;
• Creating a website-based message board or “blog” for students to share information about international trade and enable on-line discussion of current trade issues;
• Funding original research on international trade;
• Planning grass-roots events to educate American communities about key trade issues,
• Sponsoring trade debates between key Members of Congress or Presidential candidates,
• Establishing relationships with institutions of higher learning for the purpose of attracting faculty and student interest in the CWT Ed Fund’s trade assay contest; and
• Establishing relationships with corporations to assess needs for career education and job opportunities.

Criteria for Library Resources

The CWT Ed Fund created Worldtradelibrary.com to enhance public literacy about the dynamics, complexities, and overall benefits of a liberal environment for international trade, foreign direct investment, and international economic policy.

The materials catalogued are drawn from leading international economic research institutions and universities in the United States and around the world. These organizations include the Institute for International Economics, The Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Cato Institute, the Center for Global Development, the Evian Group, and multilateral development banks such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank. We also include official U.S. government statements, reports, testimony, and notices about trade, investment, and international economic policy issues.

The CWT Ed Fund's Website Oversight Committee selects materials for the library that are:

• analytically rigorous;
• comprehensive and balanced, recognizing the costs and needs for worker training and skill development but also the enhanced efficiency, productivity, innovation, and consumer welfare that results from a liberal trading system;
• relevant to current policy debates; and
• accessible to broad audiences.

The Committee reviews, updates, and renews the material on a regular basis to ensure its timeliness. The Committee uses the above criteria to determine whether articles submitted by academia and the public should be cataloged. If you would like to submit an article for consideration, please click here.

CWT Ed Fund Governance

The CWT Ed Fund operates as a nonpartisan educational organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Its main governing body is the Board of Directors consisting of at least five and no more than 15 members who serve in a volunteer capacity. Board members are elected by a vote of the sustaining members at an annual meeting held in the fall of even-numbered years. They serve two-year terms.

The CWT Ed Fund also has a President, Secretary, and Treasurer, elected by the Board of Directors. These officers comprise the Executive Committee. Regular meetings of the Board shall be held twice a year. Special meetings shall be called at the discretion of the President or at the request of one-third of the Directors in office. A quorum, consisting of at least one-half of the Board, must be present to conduct business.

The Board also selects members to serve on three functional committees - Finance, Programs, and Website Oversight. The Board may also create new functional committees (for example, "fundraising" or "grants proposals") or special committees as deemed necessary and appropriate.

CWT Ed Fund Board of Directors

The CWT Ed Fund's 2006-08 Board is composed of nine individuals with a wide range of experience and knowledge about international trade and global markets. Board members include:

Barbara P. Wanner – President of CWT Ed Fund
Project Coordinator
U.S. Asia-Pacific Council of the East-West Center

Laura Baughman
President
The Trade Partnership

Julie Coons
Chief Executive Officer
Tech Council of Maryland

Andrew Durant
Managing Director
Samuels International

Prof. Theodore Moran
Director and Wallenberg Professor
Georgetown University

Dan O’Neill
Principal
WBC Global

Pam Slater
Consultant
Trade and Government Relations

Joanne Thornton
Sr. Vice President, International Trade and Foreign Policy
Stanford Washington Research Group

Jeff Werner
Manager, International Government Affairs
DaimlerChrysler Corp.