The Department of International Economy and Trade was formerly the Department of Economics and Trade at the original Business School of University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. In 2006, the Business School merged with the School of Management to set up the Institute of E-commerce and Marketing. In 2009 it was changed to the Institute of International economics and Trade. In order to meet the needs of the teaching development of the new business school, it was adjusted to the Department of International Economics and trade in 2012.

        At present, 455 students are enrolled in the department of international economics with 39 international students from 11 countries.. It is among the departments whose students have the highest enrollment scores and the best professional quality in the Business School and even University of Shanghai for Science and Technology.

        The faculty team has been steadily improved in terms of age, degree, title and academic edge, and the scale has steadily expanded. There are 24 teachers, including 3 professors, 10 associate professors and 11 lecturers. There are 19 teachers under the age of fifty. 18 teachers with Ph.D degrees. Many of them have overseas background from Japan, United States and Canada. The faculty team is a highly educated qualified team.

        The mission of the department is to cultivate elites in international economics and trade with business ethnics and legal concerns as well as innovative and pioneering spirit, teamwork awareness and sense of responsibility. In addition, they will also know the trend of modern science and technology and master professional skills of international economics and trade. Making full use of practice specialty in science and engineering of professional colleges and universities, the department upholds educational philosophy of innovation and internationalization. It focuses on the improvement of teaching quality and builds a curriculum system with solid foundation, strengthening practice, focus on ability and quality improvement. Since 1998, a large number of international economics and trade undergraduates and masters of two related second level disciplines have been trained. Graduates are mostly employed in foreign trade or related industries, government agencies, foreign-funded enterprises, banks, securities and insurance companies, etc.

        After years of development, the discipline construction of the international economic and trade department presents a "1+4" status. "1" means the undergraduate teaching of international economics and trade. "4" refers to three academic master programs of international trade, regional economics and industrial economics and one professional master program of international business. Faculties from the department have completed a number of longitudinal research projects sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation, the National Social Science Fund, the Ministry of education, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of labor and social security, the National Bureau of statistics and Shanghai government. Many academic articles monographs and textbooks have been published.