Bio
Henry Gao is a CIGI senior fellow and a law professor at Singapore Management University. With law degrees from three continents, he started his career as the first Chinese lawyer at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Secretariat. Before moving to Singapore in late 2007, he taught law at the University of Hong Kong, where he was also deputy director of the East Asian International Economic Law and Policy (IELPO) program. He has taught at the IELPO program in Barcelona, Spain, and the Academy of International Trade Law in Macau, and was the academic coordinator for the first Asia-Pacific Regional Trade Policy Course officially sponsored by the WTO.
Henry has been an adviser on trade issues for many national governments as well as the WTO, United Nations, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, European Union and World Economic Forum. His papers have appeared in many journals, including the International and Comparative Law Quarterly, Journal of International Economic Law, World Trade Review, Harvard International Law Journal and the Journal of World Trade. His works have been cited in government reports as well as the WTO World Trade Report and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Digital Economy Report.
Henry sits on the advisory board of the WTO Chairs Program, which was established by the WTO Secretariat in 2009 to promote research and teaching on WTO issues in leading universities around the world. He is also an editorial board member of the Journal of International Economic Law and Journal of Financial Regulation, both published by Oxford University Press.
Henry is currently working on issues related to digital trade, the WTO and China, and WTO reform. His most recent work appeared in a paper analyzing China’s changing perspectives on the WTO, which was described as an “invaluable” paper by the Financial Times in its feature article on China’s twentieth anniversary in the WTO.