Sangeeta Khorana

Professor of International Trade Policy Aston University

  • Birmingham B4 7ET

Sangeeta Khorana is an international trade expert with over 25 years of academic, government and management consulting experience.

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Professor Sangeeta Khorana made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences

Professor Sangeeta Khorana, professor of international trade policy at Aston University, has been made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Fellows are elected for their contributions to social science, including in economic development, human rights and welfare reform The 2025 cohort of 63 Fellows will join a 1,700-strong Fellowship with members from academia, the public, private and third sectors. Professor Sangeeta Khorana, professor of international trade policy at Aston University, has been made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences as part of the Autumn 2025 cohort. The 63 new Fellows have been elected from 39 UK organisations, comprising 29 higher education institutions, as well as think tanks, non-profits, business, and from countries beyond the UK including Australia and China. The Academy of Social Science’s Fellowship comprises 1,700 leading social scientists from academia, the public, private and third sectors. Selection is through an independent peer review which recognises their excellence and impact. Professor Khorana has more than 25 years of academic, government and management consulting experience in international trade. She has worked for the Indian government as a civil servant and on secondment to the UK Department for Business and Trade. Her expertise includes free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations and World Trade Organization (WTO) issues. As well as sitting on various expert committees, Professor Khorana is an advisor on gender and trade to the Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network in London and serves on Foreign Investment Committee of the PHD Chambers of Commerce and Industry, India. The Autumn 2025 cohort of Fellows have expertise in a range of areas including educational inequalities, place-based economic development, human rights protection, the regulation of new technologies, and welfare reform, highlighting the importance, breadth and relevance of the social sciences to tackling the varied challenges facing society today. As well as excellence in research and professional applications of social science, the new Fellows have also made significant contributions beyond the academy, including to industry, policy and higher education. Professor Khorana said: “I am deeply honoured to be elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. This recognition underscores not only the importance of international trade policy as a driver of inclusive and sustainable growth, but also the role of social sciences in shaping fairer and more resilient societies. At Aston University, my research seeks to bridge academia, government and industry to inform evidence-based trade policy for global cooperation. I am proud to contribute to the Academy’s mission of demonstrating how social science knowledge and practice can address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.” President of the Academy, Will Hutton FAcSS, said: “It’s a pleasure to welcome these 63 leading social scientists to the Academy’s Fellowship. Their research and practical applications have made substantial contributions to social science and wider society in a range of areas from international trade policy and inclusive planning systems through to innovative entrepreneurship and governing digital technologies. We look forward to working with them to promote further the vital role the social sciences play in all areas of our lives.”

Sangeeta Khorana

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Biography

Professor Khorana is an international trade expert with over 25 years of academic, government and management consulting experience. She worked as a civil servant in the Indian government from 1993 to 2001. In 2022, she served a short-term secondment with the UK Department for Business and Trade.

She leads research on international trade policy, including free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations and World Trade Organization (WTO) issues and has advised EU institutions on FTA negotiations with India and Vietnam as well as developed methodologies for procurement liberalisation through FTA negotiations.

She is on several expert committees providing specialist advice including membership of the Expert Trade Advisory Group (Government Procurement), Department for Business and Trade in the UK. She is an Advisor on Gender and Trade to the Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network in London and serves on Foreign Investment Committee of the PHD Chambers of Commerce and Industry, India.

Professor Khorana has undertaken funded research for the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), British High Commission India, Welsh Assembly, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, European Commission, World Bank, among others.

She advises industry sectors and has provided testimony to Parliaments. Examples include on the UK-India FTA to the UK House of Lords (2022), Brexit Committee (2020), the ‘UK Trade Bill’ to the Scottish Parliament (2018) and on EU-India FTA negotiations to the European Parliament (2008).

Areas of Expertise

International Trade
International Trade Policy
World Trade Organization
FTA Negotiations
Sustainable and Inclusive Supply Chains
Technology in International Trade
Procurement Reform

Accomplishments

Fellow

Global Labor Organization

Senior Fellow

Higher Education Academy

Education

University of St Gallen, Switzerland

Ph.D.

International Trade and Development

2007

World Trade Institute, University of Berne

M.A.

International Economics and Trade Law

2003

University of Allahabad

M.A.

Affiliations

  • ETAG

Media Appearances

2022 class of IOE&IT graduates hailed as ‘leaders’ of tomorrow

IOE&IT News  online

2022-11-22

The Institute of Export & International Trade (IOE&IT) held its annual graduation ceremony in central London yesterday, with its director general Marco Forgione praising the 2022 class as the “leaders of tomorrow”.

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WTO public forum: how to get more women into international trade and build a better world

International Trade News  online

2022-09-30

The panel, entitled ‘Engendering gender equality in international trade: inclusive policies and initiatives’, was moderated by Institute of Export & International Trade’s (IoE&IT) trustee director Professor Sangeeta Khorana, and featured a lively discussion on the challenges, future and solutions of female empowerment in international trade.

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Drink up: Scotch whisky should be the crowning glory of a UK-India trade deal

City A.M.  online

2021-07-06

Even before a formal trade deal, the relationship between the UK and India was worth £25.5bn in 2019. What is known as an enhanced trade partnership – the precursor to a fully-fledged FTA – is expected to generate new jobs and unlock fresh opportunities for both countries. At the helm of closer ties between the two nations is Scotch Whisky, the full-bodied export which could reap in rewards for Britain.

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Articles

Enhancing Intra-Commonwealth Trade and Investment::An International Business Research Agenda

Commonwealth Trade Hot Topics

2023

International business (IB), whether cross-border activities by multinational enterprises (MNEs) or non-equity forms of investment, and the international environment it operates in are heavily influenced by the historical legacies of countries and their international relations.

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An anatomy of the impact of COVID-19 on the global and intra-Commonwealth trade in goods

Review of International Economics

2022

This article employs gravity modeling to examine the effect of COVID-19 on global and intra-Commonwealth trade. It uses bilateral monthly exports, number of COVID-19 cases and deaths and the stringency of measures. The main novelty is the use of price indices as proxies for multilateral resistance terms, which allow us to identify, supply, and demand effects of COVID-19 on bilateral trade.

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Big Data in Food: Systematic Literature Review and Future Directions

Journal of Computer Information Systems

2022

The growing importance of Big Data in the food industry enables businesses to leverage information to gain a competitive advantage. This paper provides a systematic literature review (SLR) to provide an insight into the use of state-of-art of Big Data applications in the food industry.

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