Quick win No. 9
A commitment to integrating gender provisions into WTO and preferential trade agreements, building on existing models – notably the Global Trade and Gender Arrangement – to reduce barriers and empower women to access opportunities in trade.
Women are underrepresented in trade. Globally, only one in five exporting firms is led by women. Such businesses are typically small, and face considerable impediments including: disproportionately high market access barriers; cultural, social and legal hurdles; and capacity challenges. In effect, women do not enjoy a level playing field in trade.
These barriers, challenges and information deficits can be tackled through trade agreements, but to date, across 83 relevant agreements, gender-related provisions have tended to be modest, heterogeneous, and largely based on best endeavors obligations. However, the recent Global Trade and Gender Arrangement (GTGA) launched by New Zealand, Canada and Chile, has broken new ground. It mandates cooperation aimed at improving women’s opportunities, including on financial inclusion, capacity-building, education, government procurement, access to networks, fostering leadership and entrepreneurship, and internationalizing small businesses. The GTGA also recognizes the importance of not weakening or reducing the protection provided in national gender equality laws in order to encourage trade or investment. In addition, there are novel provisions on trade in services, committing the Parties to avoid gender-based discrimination in licensing and certification. Finally, the GTGA acknowledges the need for gender-disaggregated data and evidence-based trade policymaking.
Four years after the Buenos Aires Joint Declaration on Women’s Economic Empowerment, it is time to move from rhetoric to concrete action in trade negotiations. Business as usual is not working for women entrepreneurs, business people, workers, and consumers. WTO members should use the GTGA as a model, by using its cooperation, capacity-building and data-analysis provisions to form the basis of a new Understanding on Trade and Gender. Members should also consider mainstreaming binding and enforceable provisions into WTO and preferential agreements, including market access reforms in sectors such as services, textiles and agriculture; non-discrimination commitments in labor, services and investment agreements/chapters; and new rules on digital trade, environment, and government procurement.
Enhancing women’s participation in trade promotes economic development, inclusive growth, and gender equality. As countries face severe pandemic disruptions and the grueling process of economic rebuilding, fostering inclusion will be critical to increasing trade and prosperity. Reducing barriers and empowering women to achieve their full potential to trade through gender-responsive trade agreements is not just the right thing to do, it is also the smart thing to do.