Dr Elitsa Garnizova


Director of the Trade Policy Hub, LSE Consulting

Elitsa Garnizova

Elitsa is the Director of the Trade Policy Hub at LSE Consulting, which provides specialised advisory services in the area of trade and investment policy. The Hub recently became the first LSE project to secure government funding through Innovate UK’s ICURe programme. She is also an Associate at the International Trade Policy Unit of LSE and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

In parallel to her work at LSE Consulting, she received a PhD in international political economy from LSE. Her research focuses on international trade and European Union trade policy, particularly looking at the causes and effects of non-tariff measures and regulatory issues within trade negotiations. She specialises in the use of qualitative methods, including interviews, focus groups, and discourse analysis, to study the nexus between trade and regulatory regimes. Her current projects focus on assessing the impact of trade agreements on economic and sustainability issues, especially human rights, on EU-US-UK relations, and on ongoing EU trade negotiations.

During her studies, she taught International Political Economy; Government, Politics and Public Policy of the European Union, 2015-16; and Trade, Development and the Environment in the Departments of Government and International Relations. She is also a member of TradeExperettes, the European Network on Inclusive Approaches to Trade Policymaking (ENIATP); Governance and Economic Integration through Free Trade Agreements (GIFTA); University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES); and the International Studies Association (ISA).

Prior to joining LSE, she worked for the Bulgarian School of Politics, focusing on capacity building; Chatham House – on corporate and external relations, and the Directorate-General for Trade as a trainee.  


Expertise: international trade; European trade policy; trade negotiations; non-tariff measures; regulatory issues; preferential trade and investment agreements; sustainable development; sustainability impact assessments; human rights


LSE Consulting projects: