Craig Atkinson

Craig Atkinson is the Founder/Director of Lexmerca International Trade and a Trade Development Specialist with the International Trade Centre (ITC), the joint agency of the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Before joining the UN in 2012, Craig began his career in commercial diplomacy with two national government agencies: the Australian Trade Commission and the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service. He has also served as a consultant for the Commonwealth Secretariat and in the private sector (banking, finance, and technology).

Emphasizing international economic law, Craig holds multidisciplinary graduate degrees and has studied in Canada (Bishop’s University; University of Saskatchewan), the Netherlands (Amsterdam School of International Business), and the United Kingdom (London School of Economics and Political Science). In addition, he has held academic positions in Asia, Europe, and North America. Recently, from 2020 to 2022, Craig was a Fellow with the Stanford Law School-University of Vienna School of Law Transatlantic Technology Law Forum and, in 2023, a Visiting Scholar with the Singapore Management University (SMU) Yong Pung How School of Law. At present, Craig is a Non-Resident Fellow with the World Trade Institute (WTI) of the University of Bern and a Research Affiliate with the SMU Centre for AI and Data Governance/Centre for Computational Law.

Craig’s activities focus on solving legal-technical problems that affect trade. These contributions support the development of software components that go beyond analytics towards next-generation infrastructure for electronic commerce and digital trade. In this context, he has participated in the World Economic Forum’s TradeTech Initiative, the WTO’s Enhanced Integrated Framework, UN Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) domains, Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) technical committees, and Xalgorithms Foundation’s Xalgo4Trade Working Group. Craig has further advised several international bodies on policy modernization issues, co-led ‘govtech’ projects, and authored works for ITC, the WTO, the Commonwealth, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).