Shanker A Singham is one of the world’s leading international trade and competition experts. He is a recognized author and adviser to governments and companies and the Chairman of the Growth Commission, an international group of economists based in London, which develops policy tackling the sluggish economic growth of the G-7 nations. Shanker is CEO of the Competere Group, which provides trade and competition law, policy and economic advice to governments and companies and is focused on promoting international trade and competition policy throughout the world. Shanker is also Chairman and President of the Competere Foundation for Trade and Competition Policy, an educational organization that focuses on promoting open trade, competitive markets and secure property rights as the basis for economic growth and effective policy reform. Previously, he was a cleared advisor to USTR and served as an advisor to the UK Trade Secretary. He has advised parliamentarians and government ministers on the overall approach to UK trade policy including the Brexit negotiations. He is also the Policy Lead of the Trader Support Service Consortium, which is delivering on behalf of HMG the implementation of the NI Protocol.

In the 1990s, Shanker worked on the privatization of the UK electricity market, the transition of the Soviet, Central and Eastern European economies and the Apertura in Latin America. He has worked on the accession of Poland and Hungary to the EU, the WTO accessions of several countries, including China and Russia. He built the Latin American trade practice of Steel Hector & Davis in Miami and led the market access/WTO practices of Steel Hector & Davis in Miami, and Squire Patton Boggs in Washington, DC. He currently resides both in Northern Virginia and London. Previously, he has lived in Hong Kong, Miami, Washington DC, and Boston.

Shanker has authored the leading academic textbook on the subject of trade, competition and regulatory frameworks, as well as lectured, written and spoken extensively. He has been featured in various articles and media publications surrounding his expertise in the fields of trade and competition, including over one hundred articles and book chapters. (Many are available at shankersingham.com.)

Shanker and his associates, have developed the concept of Anti-Competitive Market Distortions (ACMDs), now a recognized approach in the efforts to reduce barriers to fair trade and prosperity. That tool is now being deployed through the use of economic model(previously known as the SRB model) capable of identifying the impediments to wealth creation of both nations and corporations. The model focuses on per capita GDP as the standard for measuring growth.

He was the founder of the International Roundtable on Trade and Competition (1997), the Competitiveness and Enterprise Cities Project (CECP) (2013) at Babson College. Shanker has worked on a number of trade negotiations including the Free Trade Area of the Americas, US-Colombia, US-Peru, US- Panama, TTIP and TPP. He was also co-chair of the small business working group of the Transatlantic Business Dialogue.

Shanker’s most recent books are International Trade, Regulation and the Global Economy: The Impact of Anti-Competitive Market Distortions, published in August 2025, Market Distortions in Privatisation Processes, published in July 2024; Trade, Competition and Domestic Regulatory Policy: Trade Liberalisation, Competitive Markets and Property Rights Protection, published in March 2023. 

Education

Jan 2016 – present: Chairman and CEO, Competere LLC

July 2023 – present:  Chairman, The Growth Commission 

Jan 2021 – present:  Chairman, the Competere Foundation for Trade and Competition Policy   

April 2024 – present: Co-Vice Chair, Trade Facilitation Commission

Sep 2020 – present: Policy Lead, Trader Support Service Consortium

Jun 2020 – present: Member, Wilton Park Advisory Committee

May 2019 -present: Trade and Competition Academic Fellow, Institute of Economics Affairs

Sep 2006 – present: Member, Council on Foreign Relations

Sep 2010 -present: Member, Bretton Woods Committee

2016 – 2020: Advisor to Secretary of State for International Trade of the United Kingdom, Liam Fox