The program is structured over four sessions of two hours duration. It is aimed to senior to mid-level government officials from Brazilian government; partners of the National Program for Export Culture (PNCE) which includes Brazilian subnational entities and public and private bodies; and representatives from Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Panel on Gender and Trade: How could initiatives on gender and trade deliver real results? along Sara Cohen, Ed Gresser, Mona Haddad, and moderator Florizelle Liser. Rethinking World Trade Conference in Georgetown Law University, Washington, United States.
In recent years, more and more countries have included different kinds of gender considerations in their trade agreements. Yet many countries have still not signed their very first agreement with a gender equality-related provision.
The increasing trend of the inclusion of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment concerns in the negotiation of trade agreements creates a need to strengthen informed dialogue between the public and private sectors. Trade negotiators are often not aware of the specific barriers faced by women in their various economic roles, and as a result, face a challenge in promoting provisions that will successfully address these barriers.
The distributional outcomes of trade agreements have historically been uneven, creating both “losers” as well as “winners” and benefitting certain stakeholders while leaving others without benefits or even with negative repercussions. In particular, distributional outcomes can vary between women and men, since they play different roles in society, markets, and economies, and they enjoy different opportunities as well. At times, and sometimes by their very nature, trade agreements can restrict opportunities for women and further increase the gender divide.
Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) have evolved from being primarily concerned with trade issues to addressing non-trade issues. Apart from focusing on issues like trade in goods, services, and intellectual property-related issues, modern PTAs, especially north-south PTAs, also focus on non-trade issues like labour, environment, gender, and anti-corruption. Earlier, gender issues were generally addressed as part of other chapters. Now, PTAs contain a standalone chapter that solely focuses on gender issues.
The overarching aim of the project is to reflect upon the discussion on women and trade that takes place within the larger WTO context and draw conclusions on how to better achieve inclusiveness in trade. The project began when TURKTRADE, an NGO in Turkey with 34 member firms (representing 15% of Turkey’s total exports) approached the Chair with this proposal. There is also demand from the Turkish Ministry of Trade for studies in this field.