Monday, February 11, 2019

Mexico’s co-chairholder in the WTO Chairs Programme, Dr Amrita Bahri, presented a research paper entitled “Economic Empowerment of Women: Through International Law and Technology” at a workshop held at the IMS Unison University in India in February.
Her presentation focused on financial, legal, regulatory and cultural barriers for women and how international law can help to overcome these obstacles, using technology and specifically blockchain. Gender justice provisions in new-generation trade agreements such as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Israel-Canada Free Trade Agreement were analyzed to see how they can contribute to the economic empowerment of women. 
The key message from the event was that there is a growing need for more scholarships that intersect the issues of gender justice and international trade. With the WTO's commitment towards economic empowerment of women through trade, and with its aim to make trade more inclusive, research and publications on these issues have become extremely relevant for WTO law scholars.
The workshop was attended by approximately 300 participants, including the law, management and international relations faculty and students from IMS Unison University and other universities in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. The large audience and the lively questions and answers session demonstrates how important this subject is and the need for more scholarly work on the issue, especially in developing countries where women face multiple barriers to trade. 
The WTO Chairs Programme was launched in 2010 to enhance knowledge and understanding of the trading system among academics and policy makers. Nineteen universities from around the world are members of the Programme. The Chair in Mexico is the Autonomous Institute of Technology.