Trade Agreements and Disability Inclusion: Looking Beyond Labour and Gender Equality Provisions
The impact of trade agreements can vary between different groups of people, mainly because they play different roles in society, markets, and the economy, and they enjoy different opportunities. Hence, if trade agreements are designed without taking into account their impact on powers and opportunities created for different people and groups, these policy instruments can magnify existing inequalities. It is therefore important that future trade agreements are negotiated and implemented with an inclusive lens to ensure that these instruments can benefit all, including the marginalized groups of society. This chapter provides a discussion on the interlinkages between trade agreements and non-market access interests relating to sustainability, such as labour protection, gender equality, and disability inclusion to reflect on how the current trade agreements are increasingly addressing concerns not traditionally thought of as trade related. It will then zoom into the question of how disability inclusion is one such non-trade-germane concern that has found a place in current trade agreements. The chapter will identify and assess the approach with which countries so far have included provisions on disability concerns in their trade agreements.
