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Jackson House — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 20:49:28 +0000

A gender-inclusive trade agenda will help create better jobs and unlock greater economic potential.

The persistent gap between male and female labour market participation is a trend common to all regions of the world. Across the Indo-Pacific region, research shows that women are not benefiting from job growth in new sectors as much as men.

A missing link in the conversation on improving women’s participation in the Indo-Pacific economies is the role of trade. The region, which has an outsized influence on geopolitics and accounts for nearly half of global trade, can be critical for accelerating women’s economic participation and promoting inclusive growth through trade.

The inextricable link between gender equality and trade has become well established in recent years. Trade directly improves women’s lives, by creating better jobs, increasing women’s wages and welfare, and creating opportunities for women to move into higher-skill work and entrepreneurship. Firms that are part of global value chains demonstrably employ more women in developing countries. Women make up 33% of the workforce of firms that engage in international trade, compared with 24% in firms that do not.

The impact of trade on gender equality is wide-ranging – trade enhances women’s access to education, healthcare and technology.

Despite its potential for improving outcomes for women, gender has received little attention in international trade. Globally, only 15% of firms engaged in international trade are led by women. In OECD countries, 27% of women’s jobs are dependent on exports, compared to 37% for men. International trade is not favourable for women who face a wide range of barriers that include social norms and gender biases, mobility constraints, policy and legal hurdles, and restricted access to finance, technology and information.

However, recent trends in international trade present an opportunity for increasing women’s participation. This includes the overall increase in regional and cross-border trade and the dominance of global value chains, the rise of services in trade, and the expansion of green trade and digital trade.

Together these shifts represent the need for a workforce with upgraded skills, creating space for more women to enter the trade sector.

Governments and multilateral and international organisations have more recently started acknowledging that trade is not gender-neutral and seeking ways to address the global gender gaps in trade. This year’s G20 presidency under Brazil has identified boosting women’s participation in international trade as an organisation priority for the first time.

Gender provisions are also increasingly a part of trade policy and trade agreements. According to the World Trade Organisation, as of September 2022, 101 of the Preferential Trade Agreements out of 353 included an explicit reference to gender issues. Very few of these gender-related commitments, however, are enforceable.

Interestingly, the WTO, which has been advocating for gender-inclusive trade, has its own gender gaps to fill. Only 36% of ambassadors and 30% of ministers in charge of decision-making at WTO are women.

Australia has been seeking to elevate the conversation on gender segregation in trade. It endorsed the WTO’s Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment in 2017, and in February 2024 became a member of the Global Trade and Gender Agreement. A new International Gender Equality Strategy being developed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will reflect the commitment to reduce gender gaps in trade.

The Indo-Pacific, which includes some of the world’s largest economies as well as the fastest-growing economies, and “mega-regional” free trade agreements, has the potential to propel inclusive economic growth and improve the economic security of women.

There are several ways for the region to work towards this goal. Established regional forums for economic cooperation such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum can play a critical role in engaging governments, the private sector and businesses to promote inclusive trade in the region.

Gender mainstreaming is integrated into newer initiatives, including the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), a regional initiative of 14 governments to build economic integration in the Indo-Pacific, with Australia, the United States, Japan and India as members. IPEF lists trade as one of its four core pillars, and explicitly underlines the need for inclusivity in trade, removing barriers to economic empowerment and encouraging greater participation by women.

Gender equality must be a critical part of building supply chain resilience in the region. Women are under-represented in global supply chains, work in vulnerable and precarious conditions, and are concentrated in low-skilled employment.

The Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) between Australia, India and Japan could be another initiative to promote increased employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for women. IPEF, SCRI and the Quad group each list enhancing the workforce of supply chains in critical sectors as a priority, and could have targeted training and skilling programs with gender quotas.

Trade facilitation directly benefits women and enhances their participation in trade-related services. Countries such as India and Australia, leaders in trade facilitation, can work with countries in South Asia and the Pacific to promote gender-sensitive trade facilitation processes in their neighbourhoods.

The Indo-Pacific region, most often cited as a geopolitical flashpoint for trade, can be at the forefront of advancing a gender-inclusive trade agenda.

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Matt Degn — Tue, 16 May 2023 15:30:20 +0000

While some gender gaps are closing, the pace of progress is too slow in trade. Reformers in government and business can show the way.

In 2013, Connie Stacey had a business idea: to create a clean, green and quiet replacement for fossil-fuel-powered generators. Stacey, 48, had worked in information technology previously and thought she could use battery technology as an alternative to diesel or gasoline. Her version would be bigger than the batteries in mobile phones, require no technicians or engineers to use, and could be infinitely scalable. She built a prototype, named it the Grengine, and started a company called Growing Greener Innovations to build and market it.

Then came the challenges, first in terms of scaling her product and then delivering it to global markets. She ran into a barrier so many women entrepreneurs face: securing financing. As of 2022, only 2% of venture capital worldwide went to women-owned businesses, with most of those funding decisions made by men. Stacey’s challenges securing financing also underscored the soft discrimination some women face. “I had already built the prototype and there were people who asked me, ‘But who actually invented it?’”

Then there was the issue of bringing her product to the global market. Only 15% of businesses engaged in international trade are led by women, according to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Stacey finally found success in 2018, when she entered a contest sponsored by the US Department of Defense, where the innovations themselves were the main focus rather than the founders or their fundraising. Stacey won in the energy-efficiency and grid technologies category, and that gave her the momentum she needed. She won awards from 14 other organizations from 2018 to 2023, as well as contracts to supply the Grengine to clients ranging from Canada’s military to a mine in Saskatchewan and a golf resort in Wales.

Today, Stacey exports to six countries, which puts her in that small minority of women-led businesses engaged in international trade identified by the WTO.

Breaking down the gender gap

The imbalance in international trade is one of many inequalities that comprise a global gender gap that will take another 135 years to close at the current pace of policy reform, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The WEF breaks the gender gap into four areas. Two areas are considered almost completely closed: educational attainment, and health and survival. The other two gaps are more persistent: political empowerment, and economic participation and opportunity. Trade falls under the economic participation and opportunity gap. It’s a gap that impacts women as consumers, workers and entrepreneurs.

Consumers: Much has been written about the “pink tax,” or the retail premium women sometimes pay to buy a pink razor rather than a blue one. But this trade-oriented phenomenon goes deeper. According to a 2020 study published in the journal American Political Science Review covering two decades’ worth of tariffs on men’s and women’s apparel in 167 countries, imports of women’s goods were taxed 0.7% more than imports of men’s goods. In the US, tariffs add about 75 cents to the cost of men’s underwear, and US$1.10 to a pair for women.
Workers: In developing countries, women and men vie for formal employment with a company that is integrated into global value chains as it offers greater rewards and fewer risks than most other jobs. According to the World Bank, two-thirds of these positions go to men.
Entrepreneurs: Women struggle to gain the professional recognition they deserve. They also face challenges such as access to finance, balancing career aspirations with domestic responsibilities, and bribe demands or unwanted sexual encounters as they seek the necessary permits and paperwork.

The persistent gender gaps in trade, economics and politics are related: at the WTO, only 36% of ambassadors and 30% of ministers in charge of WTO affairs are women. To address the obstacles in trade, there need to be more women in these leadership roles.

Fixing the gender gap in trade is slowly gaining traction

The good news is that correcting the global gender gap in trade is beginning to gain traction among policymakers. However, it should also be on the radar for trade functions of businesses. Applying better gender-based data to strategies for businesses and for trade would have significant benefits in identifying barriers to women’s access to markets. Turning a sharper lens on gender issues could also help to scale up women-owned small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), adding long-term value to their organizations.

Governments more frequently address the gender gap in bilateral free-trade agreements (FTAs), in language evolving from aspirational to enforceable. Additionally, more governments now consider the gender impacts of all policies and processes, in a methodology called gender mainstreaming.

Governments have also identified a data deficit as an obstacle to closing the gender gap. When they collect data about businesses, more statisticians are asking gender-specific questions, expecting that more data will lead to better policy.

As more states consider practical steps available to accelerate change, some regions have taken leading roles. In North America, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa, the overall gender gap is likely to close within 100 years. But in the Middle East and North Africa, Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, and South Asia, it will take anywhere from 115 to 197 years, according to the WEF.

What all these leaders and laggards have in common, however, is that the pace of change is far too slow. If the global community is serious about this goal, the scope of its collective actions must match the scale of the problem.

The data on gender and trade are clear – for individual businesses and for whole economies.

Economically, closing the gender gap in trade would create up to US$12 trillion in GDP by 2025, according to a study by the Washington DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. In the UK, an independent study commissioned by the government, the Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship, found that if women started small businesses at the same rate as men, they would add another US$307.7 billion to the British economy – a 9.8% bump to 2021’s GDP of US$3.13 trillion.

The case for businesses is also clear. According to a 2021 study by Credit Suisse, companies with more than a 20% diversity threshold have enjoyed better EBITDA margins (higher by 1.6 percentage points) on average since 2010 compared with companies with a lower than 15% diversity threshold. Moreover, firms with higher levels of diversity, whether in management or the boardroom, have higher share price returns than companies with lower diversity levels. Comparing businesses with an above-average share of women on the board and in management to those with below-average shares (9.7% and 6.8%, respectively), the disparity in returns is roughly 300 basis points.

Diversity improves performance

A lack of diversity among venture-capital funders also helps explain why female entrepreneurs fall through the cracks. The Rose Review found that less than 1% of UK venture capital funding goes to all-female teams of entrepreneurs. This is similar to the global total, which has hovered between 2% and 3% in recent years. In the US, women account for only 5.7% of VC partners. These gendered results for venture capital persist despite a growing body of evidence that women make great leaders of start-ups: venture-backed technology companies run by women deliver higher revenue and a greater return on equity, for example.

These lessons are critical for global businesses looking to align with efforts to close the gender trade gap by ensuring they have inclusive representation in their own trade functions.

“Any kind of diversity improves your performance,” says Rocio Mejia, EY Global Trade and Indirect Tax Leader for Latin America North. “Having women in top roles provides different points of view. It’s always a combination of ideas that companies tend to follow, so it is better to have more ideas than fewer.” Companies that are inclusive are 1.7 times more likely to be leaders in innovation.

In May 2022, the United Kingdom and Mexico kicked off negotiations on a bilateral free-trade agreement. The signing ceremony was held in London’s Soho district, at the new headquarters of Diageo Plc. The largest distiller of Scotch whisky is also a major tequila producer, and recently announced a US$500 million investment in new production facilities in Jalisco, the Mexican state home to the blue agave plant used to make the drink.

When the time came for the countries’ trade ministers to shake hands and smile for the cameras, there were two women in the frame: Tatiana Clouthier, Mexico’s then Secretary of Economy, and Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the UK’s then Secretary of State for International Trade.

That two women would interact in such a high-profile negotiation was unusual because few women hold leadership positions that oversee international trade. As of January 1, 2023, women represented only 22.8% of government Cabinet ministers, and they typically headed ministries other than the high-profile ones that oversee trade policy, such as a ministry of finance, trade and investment; economic development; or foreign affairs. The five most commonly held roles for female ministers focus on issues concerning family, children, youth, the elderly and the disabled.

“When there are more females in those powerful positions, there is a greater emphasis on women’s issues and a natural understanding of the challenges they face,” says Ian Craig, EY Latin America South Global Trade Leader.

Chile takes a leading role

When Michelle Bachelet won a second term as president of Chile in 2014, she made gender equality gaps a focus. FTAs had rarely mentioned gender as an issue, and when they did so it was typically in an aspirational introductory passage rather than in the binding language of the body of the document. But Bachelet’s trade negotiators had already teamed up with some like-minded peers to push against that boundary. In 2016, Chile and Uruguay introduced the first FTA with a chapter covering gender issues. It contained general passages declaring the importance of ending discrimination against women, calling for considering gender in trade policy, and flagging trade as a way to equalize opportunity.

The two parties also declared an intention to cooperate on programs to help women build skills and networks, and to create labor market conditions that encourage female participation in job markets. Moreover, they established a gender committee to facilitate those objectives. However, these pro-equality moves are voluntary. The text clarifies that the dispute-settlement mechanism does not apply to the gender chapter.

Chile’s next generation of FTAs went further, with two treaties effective as of 2019 with Canada and Argentina. Chilean and Canadian negotiators included reminders in their bilateral FTA of other international agreements the two countries had signed, including the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The Argentina-Chile deal referenced CEDAW as well as several conventions of the International Labour Organization, which mandate equality in remuneration and opportunity, and address discrimination and other gender-based workplace issues.

Canada sets the bar higher

A Canadian FTA with Israel announced in 2019 raised the bar even higher. Canada and Israel negotiated an update to their existing FTA and specified in the gender chapter that its content is subject to the FTA’s binding resolution method. Further, instead of confining gender issues to the gender chapter, they are also addressed in the preamble of the FTA and in its labor chapter.

As an aside, it’s interesting to note that Canada’s Minister of Finance, Minister of International Trade and Minister of Foreign Affairs are currently all women.

It’s still too early to measure the progress we’re seeing

As of December 2020, an updated thorough assessment of 577 RTAs found that 83 of them had at least one provision directly referencing gender or women. This includes 305 agreements that are now in force and have been disclosed to the WTO. When provisions referring to implicit gender issues, such as human rights, the social dimension of sustainable development, and vulnerable groups are included, the total number of agreements rises to 257.

While this may be seen as progress, it’s too soon to expect measurable benefits, says Hong Kong-based Kareena Teh, Partner at LC Lawyers LLP (a member of the global EY network), who deals in disputes. “The dispute settle mechanism of the Canada-Israel FTA has yet to be tested with a gender-issues case. And FTA dispute mechanisms are just one path to narrowing the gender gap,” Teh says.

“If we take a carrot-and-stick approach, dispute settlement mechanisms are the stick,” Teh explains. “But FTAs could also include incentives to meet certain gender targets, which could be an easier way of achieving the same end.” Dispute settlement mechanisms could be difficult to apply because they are often oriented toward financial payments as settlements, and it is difficult to quantify damages payable for gender-based complaints.

Trade negotiators could also further improve FTAs through a process called gender mainstreaming. In public policy, this is a whole-of-government approach in which the responsibility to consider, analyze and address gender issues falls to more than just gender specialists. All activities must be screened for gender impacts before proceeding, including laws, regulations, government programs and research. For FTAs, gender mainstreaming would mean abandoning the approach of collecting gender-based issues and stipulations in a gender chapter, and instead ensuring that gender considerations are addressed in every chapter. This approach would leave room for both carrots and sticks, Teh says.

FTAs are an understandable focus for governments aiming to close the gender gap in trade. But trade policy isn’t the only path to progress. Practical responses to the problem can come from domestic laws and regulations, as well as from international organizations, the private sector and civil society. They include approaches such as establishing minimum bodog online casino standards, gender mainstreaming, training and oversight programs and incentive programs.

Many of the programs women can access are designed to tackle three main challenges they face as entrepreneurs: access to finance, mobility and information.

For the WTO, the international body most relevant to the challenge, a push for change coalesced into action at the 11^th Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires in 2017. Talks there led to 127 countries signing on to the Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment, which aims to boost involvement in trade for women and to ensure they benefit from the activity. This led to an informal WTO working group that meets regularly (there are five meetings in 2023), as well as a Gender Research Hub, which has been collecting data on gender-related trade matters ever since and hosts the World Trade Congress on Gender every two years in Geneva. Their latest report, issued in 2022, focused on cross-border trade in the pre- and post-pandemic environment.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), meanwhile, offers the Trade and Gender Toolbox, which national policymakers can use to forecast how new trade policy proposals would impact women.

The UN and WTO also collaborate through the International Trade Center. Its SheTrades program offers a platform for women in business to network and support each other, and for buyers to find products and services offered by women. The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s Global Trade and Gender Arrangement (GTAGA) commits signatory countries to promote trade policies that empower women and remove the barriers they face. At the World Bank, programming includes the Women, Business, and the Law initiative, which evaluates countries’ laws and regulations in hopes of triggering policy discussions that lead to the removal of legal restrictions on women aiming to export and import.

The World Bank and other multilateral or bilateral development banks and aid providers can play a dual role. In addition to providing programming to promote minimum standards or providing research, they can help close trade’s gender gap through their own decision-making processes on the loans and grants they offer. Most already require environmental and social impact assessments and environmental and social management plans for projects they finance. UNCTAD recommends 12 main ingredients for a management plan, one of which addresses gender concerns in labor.

Governments should seize opportunities to improve women’s access to finance, mobility and information

Outside of trade agreements, there are several opportunities governments can take advantage of to improve women’s access to finance, mobility and information.

Enforce standards. Governments can enforce standards through their procurement processes. Laws and rules can establish that winners of government contracts must commit to specific conditions, such as providing opportunities to qualified women-led subcontractors. Currently, impact assessments and procurement rules are often treated as “box-ticking exercises” in which investors do the bare minimum required to win approval, according to a World Bank report.
Tailor training and facilitation resources to women. Training and facilitation programs often focus on the main challenges women face as entrepreneurs. They are available from in-country export-promotion agencies, from development banks, government agencies, or civil society groups. Tailoring these resources to women specifically and offering them in a women-only setting can help eliminate the possibility of discrimination, as in many cases the people running these programs are men.
Consider culture and local norms when devising mobility solutions. The mobility problem is often rooted in local conditions and cultures, says Taramani Agarwal, a Dehli-based Public Policy Development Manager at EY Global Delivery Services India LLP. In many parts of the world women cannot simply pack up their goods and travel to another country to sell or arrange for shipping. People in remote settings may lack affordable transportation. Husbands might prefer their wives stay close to home to look after children. Women could face discrimination or unwanted sexual advances at any point in any business trip: to a market, supplier, bank or shipping point. Joining digital platforms may be a solution in the future because work can be done from home, but research thus far on their gender impacts is unclear. A local solution in Northeast India involved small, stall-based markets near India’s international borders, Agarwal says. This marketplace model of “boarder haats” [sic] is not exclusive to women. However, given the suitable conditions to trade products at the border markets, local women are able to make money for their sustainable livelihood. “We found that customs officers and trade officials needed to be gender-sensitive for this to work,” says Agarwal, who was then employed by a non-governmental organization working to facilitate trade. Her team recommended gender training for customs officials, freight forwarders and others involved in the process, as well as addressing the setting. The border-haat concept comes with a bonus for tax authorities – it reduces informal trade and offers an opportunity to connect with entrepreneurs and encourage them to register their businesses and pay taxes. Offer gender-exclusive opportunities to access information. Jesmina Zeliang, who is from India’s remote Nagaland state, and is the founder of a home décor and textiles business that sells goods to global retailers such as Crate & Barrel and Christian Louboutin, realized she needed help when growth had slowed and buyers had stopped calling. Zeliang started with programs for developing-country entrepreneurs offered by the Delhi-based Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts and the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank. She evaluated her business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and studied export marketing. She learned to target markets by understanding common color choices for home decoration in different countries and developing a pitch more sophisticated than carrying samples and knocking on doors. She added international contacts to her professional network and soon built relationships into contracts. She’s now on the board of the Export Promotion Council as its sole female member. Zeliang took advantage of many of the same types of support that men also find valuable: training, networking and joining trade associations or local chambers of commerce. The groups and programs Zeliang used weren’t tailored to women specifically. But there may be value in gender-exclusive versions.
Develop models that speak to women. Vicki Saunders runs a non-profit crowdfunding platform called Coralus International. She raises funds for women entrepreneurs using a values-driven approach. Those donors are then entitled to vote on proposals from female entrepreneurs, and the winners receive a five-year loan worth US$100,000 in the local currency at zero interest. Coralus operates in Canada, the US, New Zealand, Australia and the UK. She has thus far raised about US$14 million and funded 146 ventures. “Our model has little to do with women specifically beyond that you have to be one to participate,” Saunders says. Saunders’ platform also addresses the ways in which women network and interact in professional communities, as well as the gap in finance. The entrepreneurs she backs participate in regular sessions, typically over video platforms. “People take turns talking about their products and services,” Saunders says. “Often, they hadn’t been thinking of exporting, but suddenly they’re able to tap international markets because someone else on the call knows a local distributor. It’s tough to build a business on your own, but it becomes so much easier when you get people together in the same room. We’re focused on relationships and not transactions.”

Where trade was once considered a gender-neutral activity, it is now understood to have gendered impacts. The 2017 Buenos Aires Declaration identifies improved data collection as a way to fix that.

“We need data disaggregated by sex so we know how different policies impact men differently than women,” Teh says.

According to the OECD, policymakers should collect data for indicators such as the ratio of women’s to men’s income in comparable trade-based economic sectors or value chains, the percentage of women in higher-paid positions across sectors or value-chain segments, the ratio of women and men enrolled in trade-specific capacity-building training programs, and the number of procurement contracts awarded as a result of the increased certification of women-owned businesses.

A data-centric approach has worked to measure and close other kinds of gender gaps, according to the WEF. Since 2006, for example, the report has measured the ratio of males to females enrolled in secondary education. Disseminating that data led to 184 countries adopting a monitoring framework to ensure inclusion, and education became one of the two main gender gaps the WEF considers almost completely closed.

Conclusions across countries about how trade policy impacts women can be difficult, however, because countries collect that data in different ways, according to UNCTAD. One way to address this would be greater harmonization in the ways governments conduct surveys and other data-gathering exercises, to make data easier to compare across countries.

Disaggregating data by gender has also improved the private sector’s understanding of how women experience their goods and services. For the automotive industry, gender-specific data on vehicle crashes has helped to reveal that women are 47% more likely to suffer injury and 17% more likely to die because the crash-test dummies used in safety assessments mimic the bodies of men only instead of both genders. In financial services, data have shown that women are more likely to seek a new investment advisor when their spouse dies because advisors have worked in the past to develop a relationship with the husband only.

Although governments are the logical starting point for improving the data available to policymakers, they can’t do it alone – particularly in bigger countries, where relevant agencies may not have the resources to collect statistically significant data samples, especially in remote regions.

International organizations also play a role in data gathering and analysis. In recent years, several organizations have studied digital-commerce platforms and how their impact differs on male and female entrepreneurs, with mixed results. In Indonesia, a United Nations study found that 54% of women-owned microbusinesses use the internet to sell their products, compared with 39% of those that are men-owned. Using survey data from the Indonesian government, the study found that about 40% of micro and small businesses led by women used digital platforms to expand their businesses, compared with about 10% less for those led by men. However, in the Philippines, the Asian Development Bank found that women are more likely to use platforms, but that men who use digital platforms in similar ways are more likely to earn more.

Another solution to address the data gap, while showing where the structural barriers to trade for women persist, is the SheTrades Outlook developed by the International Trade Center. This evidenced-based policy tool helps to identify policies, laws or programs that contribute or prevent women’s participation in the economy and trade. The SheTrades Outlook covers 55 indicators grouped under six interlinked pillars. It also has a repository of over 100 good practices on women’s economic empowerment around the world.

It’s early in the quest to understand the lasting impacts of digital platforms, just as it’s too soon to gauge the effectiveness of gender provisions in FTAs. The hunt for data will continue. “If you want gender-sensitive data, you need to ask gender-sensitive questions,” Teh warns.

This makes statistics collection similar to FTAs, representation in senior government roles and barriers to access. To improve gender-neutral outcomes, all stakeholders involved need to create opportunities for women to participate, lead and influence the process.

Gender parity is central to conversations among businesses that are increasingly focused on social and environmental issues. However, businesses need to translate rhetoric about progress into meaningful action that has a lasting impact.

For organizations that are serious about gender-parity in global trade, here are three ways they can help close the gender gap.

Lobby governments to forge stronger ties among domestic policy, trade and strategic goals. Organizations can lobby governments to not only acknowledge the importance of incorporating a gender perspective into strategic goals around inclusive economic growth, but also to develop and enact meaningful policies that mandate action – using carrot, stick, or both.
Lead by example by placing more women in key decision-making roles. As we’ve noted, the data is clear that governments develop better policies toward closing the gender gap when women are in senior decision-making roles. And businesses are more profitable. Organizations that prioritize diversity in their boards and senior leadership positions – and especially positions that have an impact on international trade – can do more than boost their bottom line. In leading by example, they can demonstrate to governments and policymakers that more women in roles that can accelerate the closure of the gender gap in trade becomes a win-win for everyone.
Create a trade function within your organization that recognizes the value women-led businesses can bring to global markets. In a more disrupted international trade environment, organizations would benefit from setting up a trade function. In addition to exploring new markets, finding suitable partners and developing a framework for trade compliance in the jurisdictions in which you operate, this trade function can establish policies that prioritize partnerships and alliances with women-led businesses. Such policies would strengthen your ecosystem and help women-led businesses maximize their potential in global markets.

Closing the gender gap in international trade shouldn’t take 135.6 years. With governments, policymakers, non-governmental organizations, and corporations working together to break down the barriers that women-led businesses face, gender-parity in international trade could be a reality within the next decade. That’s a goal worth realizing.

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Juliette Moses — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 14:27:39 +0000

It has been four years since the Joint Declaration on Women’s Economic Empowerment was endorsed by nearly 120 countries at the 11th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires. The international conversation on empowering women has progressed considerably since then, and especially over the last two years, coinciding with a period that has seen severe pandemic impacts on women workers and entrepreneurs. This increase in pace is good news, but shifting the dial in a practical way for women is still a work in progress.

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Both anecdotal evidence and formal research point to the fact that women are underrepresented in trade. Access to the gender-specific data that would enable a more nuanced understanding of the challenge has been patchy at best, although this is starting to change. A 2015 paper from the International Trade Centre (ITC), which looked at 20 countries, found that only one in five exporting firms was led by women. It also found that women-led businesses are typically small and face disproportionately high market access barriers and capacity challenges, along with gender-specific cultural, social, and legal hurdles. Research published by the World Bank and WTO in 2020 similarly found that women tended to work in sectors that benefited less from trade – but also that trade can dramatically improve women’s lives, creating new and better jobs, enhancing consumer choice, and increasing women’s bargaining power in society.

A new study by New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has found similar trends – notwithstanding that New Zealand regularly comes at or near the top of league tables for women’s entrepreneurship and equity more generally. The paper shows that women are underrepresented in goods exporting firms, including in leadership and ownership roles – a difference that is particularly stark in large firms (responsible for the bulk of New Zealand goods exports), where only 4% have a female-majority leadership team. Employees of exporting firms generally enjoy higher-than-average earnings than their counterparts in non-exporting firms, but there is a larger wage gap in favour of men in exporting firms compared to non-exporting firms. It should be noted that the study did not look at services and digital trade, which have elsewhere been identified as sectors with significant promise for women.

Research, analysis, and coordination gathering pace

Complementing these efforts to build out the data picture, international organisations including the WTO, the World Bank, the ITC, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have published major analytical studies on these subjects in the last few years. This work includes detailed insights on the implicit biases, structural impediments, and trade barriers that women face. The OECD has developed an excellent new framework of analysis on trade and gender to help guide the development of more robust, evidence-based domestic and trade policies to address gender disparities.

At the WTO, discussions have intensified in an Informal Working Group on trade and gender that grew out of the original Buenos Aires Declaration, as the group (now counting 129 WTO members) prepares to launch an outcome document at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference. The document will recommend that participating WTO members continue to work on increasing women’s participation in trade, including through ‘mainstreaming’ women’s economic empowerment issues into the regular work of WTO bodies and into Aid For Trade programmes and strategies, and deepen understanding through improved data collection, training and greater coordination of research.

Progress on the latter has already been notable, with the launch of the WTO’s Gender Research Hub in May 2021, bringing together researchers from the WTO, the OECD, and other international and regional organisations, eight universities, and the WTO Chairs Programme members of Mexico, Chile, Barbados, and South Africa. A series of public discussions designed to give greater visibility to the research, called Think Up!, kicked off on March 9th with an initial focus on the trade finance gender gap – a well-documented structural impediment to the ability of women to engage in trade.

Gender and trade agreements

Countries are also deepening their engagement outside of the WTO, as they seek to create a more enabling environment for women through new trade agreements. More than 80 free trade agreements now include gender-related provisions, but these provisions have tended to be modest, heterogeneous in scale, scope and ambition, and largely based on best endeavours.

One standout is a standalone initiative aimed at boosting women’s role in trade: the Global Trade and Gender Arrangement (GTGA). The Arrangement was signed in late 2020 by New Zealand, Canada, and Chile, the three members of the Inclusive Trade Action Group. Mexico has since joined, and other countries are also showing interest. The GTGA builds on what has gone before in terms of best-endeavours approaches to knowledge-sharing, but adds new elements and a more solid platform for cooperation in the shape of a formal Working Group to develop and drive new initiatives.

The GTGA acknowledges the need for gender-disaggregated data and evidence-based trade policy-making. It mandates cooperation in a range of areas, spanning financial inclusion, capacity-building, access to education including digital skills development, fostering leadership and entrepreneurship, business development, and internationalization, access to networks, trade missions, and government procurement. The Arrangement recognizes the importance of not weakening or reducing the protection provided in national gender equality laws in order to encourage trade or investment. It also stakes out new ground with a commitment by the Parties not to discriminate bodog sportsbook review in licensing and certification for services trade.

The way forward

While it is too early to measure the impact of the Arrangement, it provides an important model for further work among WTO members following MC12. Critics may dismiss the idea of working on ‘soft norms’ around cooperation, capacity building, and data analysis as less valuable than binding ‘hard law’, but it is clear that we still have a way to go to understand how to effect practical change. This applies as much to the design of domestic programmes and reforms that will enhance the ability of women to take advantage of trade opportunities – still a rarity in many countries – as it does to outward-facing trade policy. Sharing experiences and ideas along GTGA lines can be an important driver of innovation and concrete action.

In the meantime, as the TradeExperettes’ publication 10 Quick Wins on Equitable Trade argues, countries could take simple but concrete steps to mainstream binding and enforceable provisions into WTO and regional agreements, including through trade facilitation measures and market access reforms in sectors where women are predominant (and which continue to see significant barriers to trade), especially services, textiles, and agriculture; developing new rules on digital trade and government procurement, and making explicit commitments to non-discrimination in labour, services, and investment.

On the latter, It was particularly welcome to see that the new disciplines agreed under the ‘Joint Statement Initiative’ on Services Domestic Regulation, concluded in December 2021 among a group accounting for 90% of global services trade, includes a provision on non-discrimination between men and women in authorisation procedures for services suppliers.

Enhancing participation by women in trade will promote economic development, inclusive growth, and gender equality. At a time when the outlook is hemmed around with downside risk, it is time to step up the pace on trade and gender.

Stephanie Honey is the Director of Honey Consulting Ltd, co-founder of Global Trade Insights, which offers executive education in trade policy, and a former New Zealand trade negotiator. She focuses on digital trade, Asia-Pacific regional economic integration, the WTO, agriculture, and inclusion in trade.

To read the full article by Trade Experettes, please click here.

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Anne Allen Hodge — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 16:33:58 +0000

In my post yesterday, I pulled some information from a short video put together by the WTO, UNCTAD and ITC that dealt with the issue of priorities for the three organizations in terms of recovering from the pandemic. I also reviewed some actions President Biden was taking in the United States. See March 8, 2011, March 8, 2021, International Women’s Day — statements of UN Women Executive Director, heads of WTO, UNCTAD and International Trade Centre, and U.S. Executive Orders and Statement by President Biden, https://currentthoughtsontrade.com/2021/03/08/march-8-2021-international-womens-day-statements-of-un-women-executive-director-heads-of-wto-unctad-and-international-trade-centre-and-u-s-executive-orders-and-statement-by-president-biden/.

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Yesterday the WTO hosted a virtual event entitled “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world,” Director-General Okonjo-Iweala gave an opening statement which chronicles both the disproportionate harm women have encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic but also some of the actions some governments are taking to address the challenges facing women. See WTO, International Women’s Day: Focus on women for a stronger recovery, March 8, 2021, https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news21_e/women_08mar21_e.htm. While the two priorities of the Director-General (DG) reviewed in yesterday’s post are also present in her statement at yesterday’s event (equitable and affordable access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics; eliminating or phasing out export restraints), there is a lot more ground covered in the statement. The women and trade agenda at the WTO is relatively limited at the present time. Having a woman as Director-General can lead to changes in the organization and structure of the Secretariat — which is identified as a topic DG Okonjo-Iweala will be addressing — and can help ensure that women are at the table for all negotiations so that trade policy and negotiations include an understanding of the implications for gender equality and empowerment of women and girls. DG Okonjo-Iweala reviews the reasons women have been disproportionately affected — including being overrepresented in sectors heavily impacted by the pandemic (textile and apparel manufacturing, tourism), being heavily concentrated in the informal economy of countries with limited or no safety net if jobs are lost, for entrepreneurs, being in small businesses with limited financial resources making surviving a pandemic more challenging, shouldering heavy loads at home in terms of child care, and facing great health care risks because of the concentration in medical and essential services jobs, The text of DG Okonjo-Iweala’s statement, which ls linked to the press release is copied below. See Speeches — DG Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, 2021 WTO International Women’s Day: “Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World”, March 8, 2021, https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/spno_e/spno2_e.htm.

“Ladies and gentlemen,

“Today is my first International Woman’s Day as the WTO Director-General. Given the particular challenges the pandemic has brought to women globally, I wish to focus my opening remarks today on what the WTO can do to help address these challenges. But I am keenly aware that achieving gender equality is also one of the top priorities for the Secretariat itself, and we will find an occasion soon to have a focused discussion on gender issues for the Secretariat.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened inequalities of every kind. Between countries with money to spend on vaccines and economic relief, and those that cannot. Between workers who must risk their health every day, and those who can safely work from home. Between big firms and small businesses.

“But perhaps no divide has deepened more than that between men and women.

“In both paid and unpaid work, women bore the brunt of the pandemic’s social and economic impact.

“Globally, 5% of women lost jobs in 2020. The employment loss of men was 3.8%. Women have also been much more likely than men to drop out of the labour market and become inactive.

“In low-income countries without the means to offer economic support during lockdowns, many women lost their only source of income. As family incomes fell, many girls stayed home when schools reopened, or went to work.

“Why has the recession caused by the pandemic had such a disproportionate impact on women?

“First, women are overrepresented in sectors that have been more negatively affected than others.

“This includes jobs requiring in-person contact, such as food service and retail — sectors that either shut down or became much riskier. Women also account for a large share of workers in services such as tourism — sectors directly affected by travel restrictions.

“Women also outnumber men in the manufacturing sectors hardest hit by the pandemic, such as textiles and apparel, where factories shut down early in the pandemic in response to plummeting export demand. In Bangladesh, for example, female employees represent 80 per cent of the workforce in ready-made garment production. Industry orders declined by 45.8 per cent over the first quarter of 2020 — by 81 per cent in April 2020 alone.

Second, more women work in informal sectors than men. Women make up 58% of employment in informal sectors, and the numbers are higher in developing and least-developed economies. In Africa, for example, almost 90% of employed women work in the informal sector. These women workers are hurt the most because they are likely to have lost their only source of income and been left with no social and legal protection.

“Third, many women entrepreneurs own or manage small businesses that already struggle with limited financial resources and borrowing capacity. The pandemic worsened these pressures.

“And within families, women continue to shoulder a heavier burden than men. Temporary school closures made fathers step up a little, but mothers stepped up much more. Working mothers changed work schedules, reduced hours or took unpaid leave far more frequently than working fathers. In Germany, 6% of fathers but 62% of mothers indicate they have taken on the primary responsibility for their children during school closures.

“Finally, women face greater health risks as they work more in areas such as health and social care, sales of food and other necessary goods. In many countries, women comprise over 75% of the healthcare workforce. In certain countries (Italy, Spain, and the US), a higher proportion of women healthcare workers (69%, 75.5%, and 73% respectively) were found infected with COVID-19: although work is still ongoing to understand the reasons for this, one possible reason is that personal protection equipment has been designed to fit for men and even the smallest size is too big for some women.

“Even before COVID-19, progress towards gender parity had been too slow, too uneven. Now, unless we act quickly, the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on women could last for decades. This would be a moral failure — and an economic disaster.

“The biggest thing the WTO can do right now is to work with Members to keep trade open.

“As the economic data shows, trade has proven crucial in the global fight against the pandemic.

“While too many export restrictions remain in place, trade helped improve access to key medical products over the past year. In the first half of 2020, while global trade contracted by 14% compared to the year before, total imports of personal protective equipment and other COVID-related products rose by 29%. The value of trade in textile face masks grew six-fold. PPE trade grew by 50%. Trade thus enhanced supply resilience, particularly for those countries without manufacturing capacity.

“The pandemic has also highlighted how the temporary movement of healthcare workers, of whom many are women, has particularly helped the most affected countries to deal with the crisis. Open trade will continue to be key to building faster and more inclusive growth.

“Second, WTO Members must minimize or remove existing export restrictions that are impeding access to essential medical supplies and disrupting supply chains. Transparency on any export trade restrictions should also be improved through prompt notifications.

“In all these efforts, our priority should be to contribute to making vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics available and affordable in all countries. Until we have successfully tackled health challenges for everyone, we cannot tackle economic ones.

“Third, trade can be a source of more and better jobs, and increased purchasing power for women. Overall, countries that are more open to trade, as measured by the ratio of trade to gross domestic product, have higher levels of gender equality.

“For one, women are more likely to be in formal jobs if they work in trade-integrated sectors with higher levels of exports, thereby giving them opportunities for benefits, training, and job security. A recent World Bank survey shows that, for women, the probability of being informal declines from 20% in sectors with low levels of exports to 13% in sectors with high levels of exports.

“Digital technologies can also help women overcome gender-based barriers to trade, reach broader markets, and weather the impact of crises better. Women facemasks producers in Kenya, for example, found ways to develop and even expand their businesses during lockdowns using growing e-commerce opportunities. Rwandan women coffee producers were able to export their products directly to China. Let’s close the existing gender digital divide and help all women benefit from the opportunities created by digital technologies.

“Finally, all these efforts must be supported by targeted support measures for women.

“Women could be left behind in the recovery unless adequate measures are put in place to address the uneven impact of the pandemic on them. Let me give you one example of how targeted intervention can make a difference: in Zambia, the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) and the International Trade Centre (ITC) helped women-owned businesses selling textiles, leather, and honey to attend trade fairs and other B2B activities. The result: they were able to break into 10 new international markets, and generate hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of new sales. They also expanded their supplier networks, and many of those new suppliers were also run by women.

“Governments need to prioritize women in the labour force and in the home through financial, legal, and educational measures. Fiscal support for women will be particularly crucial. Yet currently less than 40 per cent of all measures taken globally for the recovery are gender sensitive, with only 7 per cent containing measures supporting women’s economic security.

“This is a crude reminder for all of us that women must be at all decision-making tables equally as men. As Dame Graça Machel once said, “…socio-economic transformation will only be realized once we aggressively address gender-specific challenges, prioritize gender equality and women’s participation, and firmly entrench women in leadership positions at all levels in society.”

“The cost of gender inequality is enormous. A few years ago McKinsey estimated that if women played a fully equal role to men in the labour market, global economic output could increase by as much as $28 trillion per year. To put it in perspective, this pandemic reduced global output last year by between $3 and 4 trillion.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is setting women back in all domains of society.

“At the same time, it has reminded everyone of the enormous value of care and other kinds of work traditionally associated with women. And it has highlighted the power and effectiveness of women’s leadership. Although no analytical study has been conducted yet, anecdotal examples show that economies led by woman leaders (e.g. New Zealand, Denmark, Chinese Taipei, Iceland, Finland, and Norway) have outperformed their peers in terms of management of this pandemic.

“We cannot expect to make good policy for all members of society if half of the population is not properly and equally represented at the table.

“Gender equality is a fundamental human rights issue and also an economic empowerment issue. We should all work harder in our respective roles to achieve complete gender equality.

“I wish you all a happy International Women’s Day!”

Additional actions by President Biden

In yesterday’s post, I also reviewed actions President Biden was taking in the form of two Executive Orders (one Executive Order on Establishment of the White House Gender Policy Council, a second bodog casino Executive Order on Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free from Discrimination on the Basis of Sex, Including Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity). But President Biden on March 8th reviewed additional actions he has taken including nominating two women to hold command positions in the U.S. Military and putting forward to Congress the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021. See Statement by President Biden on the Introduction of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021 and Remarks by President Biden on International Women’s Day (“On Friday, I submitted to the Senate for confirmation my first slate of nominations for four-star command positions in our Armed Forces — among them, two outstanding and eminently qualified warriors and patriots. General Jacqueline Van Ovost in the United States Air Force is currently the only female four-star officer serving in our military. I nominated her as Commander of the United States Transportation Command. And when confirmed, the Lieutenant General Laura Richardson, of the United States Army, will be promoted in rank and join General Van Ovost as the only four-star — as another four-star general. I nominated her as Commander in the United States Southern Command. And, when confirmed, they will become the second and third women in the history of the United States Armed Forces to lead combatant commands.”). The Biden Administration also had a press briefing with the two co-chairs of the Gender Policy Council. See Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Co-Chair of the Gender Policy Council and Chief of Staff to the First Lady Julissa Reynoso, and Co-Chair and Executive Director of the Gender Policy Council Jennifer Klein, March 8, 2021. And Vice President Kamala Harris reported participated in a discussion with an EU Parliamentary Committee. See eudebates.tv, We are all in this together! Jacinda Ardern on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2021, https://www.eudebates.tv/debates/world-debates/australia/we-are-all-in-this-together-jacinda-ardern-on-international-womens-day/ (“.During the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels, Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand joined MEPs to celebrate the International Women’s Day during a debate. Prime Minister Jacinda was one of a number of high-profile guests, including US Vice President Kamala Harris, to address the European Union Parliament for International Women’s Day.”)..

So the Biden Administration has been taking actions to bring women into positions of power in a unprecedented manner in the United States and to embark on reviews to ensure problems to achieving gender equality are identified and addressed.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

The EU has had relatively strong programs promoting gender equality over time. Like the United States, the EU is looking to do more. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made a statement yesterday at the EP FEMM Interparliamentary Committee meeting reviewing the important contributions of women to the development of COVID-19 vaccines and the actions the EU will be taking to improve gender equality. Like President Biden’s cabinet, EC President von der Leyen has much greater balance in the Commission composition in terms gender representation. SeeOpening speech by President von der Leyen at the EP FEMM Interparliamentary Committee meeting, on the occasion of the International Women’s Day 2021, March 8, 2021, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/SPEECH_21_1017. Her speech is copied below.

“Thank you very much Evelyn Regner,

“Presidents and Honourable Members,

“It is an honour to be with you today, in the company of so many amazing women. And allow me to begin by mentioning three women who are not with us today. Doctor Özlem Türeci. Professor Sarah Gilbert. Doctor Kizzmekia Corbett. Some of you may have never heard their names before. But we owe them a lot. They are three scientists from Germany, the UK and the U.S. And these three extraordinary women lead the teams that developed the first three vaccines against coronavirus. BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca.

“And I am sure that they, like many of us, have fought against all sorts of stereotypes. But this is how women respond to stereotypes: By going their way, showing leadership and excelling in their field. And today the whole world can see that we are all better off when women get the opportunities they deserve. Of course, women are made for science. Of course, women are fit to lead. Of course, career and motherhood can go together. It is obvious, but unfortunately it still needs to be said.

“This year’s International Women’s Day is for women like these three scientists. This Women’s Day is for women on the front-line, and for women in the back-office. It is for the health workers, who have been our guardian angels, and it is for our sales assistants, who have kept our supermarkets open. And indeed, let us never forget that almost 80% of them are women.

“Women’s Day is also for all the mothers who have taken care of their children during the lockdowns, while also working from home. But this Women’s Day is also for the women who lost their job during the crisis. And Women’s Day is for those who no longer want to settle for discriminations, insecurity and unfairness. As a female leader, I would like 2021 to bring good news to all of them, to all European women. And this is what we are working on: Putting women at the centre of all our policies.

“And let me start with the basics. Later this year we will propose new legislation to fight violence against women. This has bodog poker review become even more urgent because of the lockdowns. Living free from fear and violence is a basic human right. And we must ensure adequate protection for all women, in all European countries, online and offline, and especially at home.

“Second, women must be at the centre of the recovery. This is a clear requirement for all national recovery plans. NextGenerationEU will finance good jobs for women and men alike. It will invest in quality education for girls and women, including scientific education. NextGenerationEU will be for all Europeans, women and men.

“Third, today indeed we are presenting our new Action Plan to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights. We have set ambitious targets on jobs, skills, and poverty reduction. These are clear and measurable goals to drive our work.

“And let me take one of them: By 2030, at least 78% of European adults should be employed. And this can only be achieved by having more women in the labour market. But to do this we need to make progress on work-life balance. Ensuring parental leave for mothers and fathers. Investing in childcare and good schools. And indeed creating a child guarantee, so that all parents, from all social backgrounds, can send their kids to childcare and school. And this is what empowerment means. Freedom to be a mother and to have a career, for all women.

“And this adds up to the fourth point, today we are also proposing a Directive for pay transparency. It builds on a very simple idea: Equal work deserves equal pay. And for equal pay, you need transparency. Women must know whether their employers treat them fairly. And when this is not the case, they must have the power to fight back and get what they deserve.

“And finally, women should always be able to reach for the top, including in private companies. I fought for this when I was a Minister in Germany. And I will not stop pushing for gender quotas on boards until we get a fair system for all European countries. We simply cannot exclude half of our talents from leadership positions.

“Having women in leadership position should become the norm, not the exception. And slowly but steadily, Europe is changing. Five EU governments are now led by women. For the first time, an EU country, Estonia, is led by two women, as President and Prime Minister. And you, President Sakellaropoulou, are the first woman to be elected as Greek President.

“For the first time in our history, not only the European Commission is led by a woman, but we have also achieved gender-balance in the College of Commissioners. As you know, this is something I promised on my nomination. I asked every European country to present a man and a woman as candidates for each post. It was not always easy. But we made it. And it shows that everything can change, with tireless perseverance.

“All of this matters. It matters to the quality of our decision-making. And it matters to our daughters. It tells them that they can reach for the top. It tells them that hard work pays off. That they will be judged on their ideas, their dedication and their talent, not for their chromosomes. A gender-balanced Europe is a better Europe. Not just for women, but for all of us.

“And in this spirit: Long live Europe, and happy Women’s Day!”

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Arden also spoke to the European Parliament yesterday. Her speech can be found here. eudebates.tv, We are all in this together! Jacinda Ardern on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2021, https://www.eudebates.tv/debates/world-debates/australia/we-are-all-in-this-together-jacinda-ardern-on-international-womens-day/. New Zealand has done a lot to promote gender equality and has leadership in government that is roughly in number equal between women and men. But challenges remain as the Prime Minister notes in her speech including women being “overrepresented in job loss and low paid work and domestic violence statistics.” The Prime Minister’s speech is copied below (headers are from the webpage).

“Jacinda Ardern European Parliament speech on International Women’s Day

“I’m honoured to see this kind invitation to speak with you and I bring warm greetings from New Zealand. President Sassoli, thank you for convening this session and for the focus on women’s empowerment and leadership during the covid crisis. To say this is a challenging time would be, of course, a monumental understatement. The world is reeling from the effects of the covid-19 pandemic.

“It has had far reaching consequences that have affected every one of us. This is a critical time for us as leaders and representatives to come together, even if it is by video in these constrained times. Covid-19 highlights how truly interdependent we all are, how reliant we are on cooperation, communication and compassion to successfully combat the virus.

“Jacinda Ardern puts people at the centre

“It highlights how important it is that we work together for a sustainable recovery that delivers for our economies and our planet. But it also puts people at the centre of our decision making. In New Zealand our approach in battling covid-19 has been one of inclusivity. The idea that everyone needs to do their bit to protect one another, especially our most vulnerable.

“I want to talk about our population as the team of five million, and we may be a small team, but one that nonetheless has proven the power and importance of the collective. And now that’s exactly what we need from the world. It’s a haunting legacy if the virus drags on around the globe. It has become clear no country is safe until every country is safe. As we move to a phase of vaccination we are not a team of five million, but we are a team of seven point eight billion

“The success of individual countries or regions means little unless we are all successful. In New Zealand‘s indigenous language Te Reo Maori, we say “we are all in this together”. But some have felt the effects of covid-19 even more acutely than others. Covid-19 has ravaged our health systems, our economies, our livelihoods. But it is also exacerbated structural inequalities that disproportionately impact women and girls.

“Women are at the forefront

“Women are at the forefront of fighting the covid crisis. Amongst the doctors, nurses, scientists, communicators, caregivers and frontline and essential workers who face the devastations and challenges of this virus every day. Along with being directly affected by the virus itself and its immediate impacts on our livelihoods, we’re also the subjects of intensified domestic violence.

“Now this is being reported as the shadow pandemic in all corners of the world. Not only by fully and meaningfully including women and girls in leadership and decision making at all levels can we ensure that our responses to the pandemic meet the needs of everyone. As prime minister of a small country on the far side of the world, I’m proud of what our team of five million in New Zealand has been able to achieve over the last year.

“We have a proud history of championing gender rights since we became the first country in the world to give all women the right to vote in 1893. I’m part of the most diverse and inclusive parliament New Zealanders have ever elected, with women making up forty eight per cent of our parliament and fifty five per cent of my party in government.

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“Women also hold the post of Governor-General, Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and Chief Justice, and increasingly holding senior roles in our public service and business sector. And now, for the first time and long overdue, I might add, New Zealand‘s Minister of Foreign Affairs is a woman. She is a skilled, values driven indigenous woman with a contemporary worldview.

“And yet for all of that, we have so much more to do because it doesn’t matter how many women are in leadership, so long as we have women overrepresented in job loss and low paid work and domestic violence statistics. In my mind, that is the true measure of whether we have made progress and whether we have equality.

“As we look towards the year ahead we all know it will be tough. There will be big challenges and demands made of all of us as leaders. We will be tested. We must all do more to support women lead business, including small enterprises, to be part of the covid-19 economic recovery so they can more readily experience the benefits of trade.

“The European Union and New Zealand. We are Like-Minded Partners with so many values and interests in common, we both desire the stability and freedom afforded us all by global rules and institutions, free and open markets and a world where human rights are valued and prioritised.

“As we all turn towards creating a sustainable global economic recovery, my message to you is simple. We need to stick together because we are all in this together. I wish your Parliament and all our people the very best for the challenges that lie ahead. Stay safe. Stay well.”

Conclusion

Gender equality is an issue that needs a permanent place on agendas of organizations and governments to ensure progress is made for half the world’s people. Progress has been too slow in too much of the world and discrimination or unequal treatment can be found in various forms in nearly all countries. It is unimaginable that the world has not progressed more. We can and must do better.

Terence Stewart, former Managing Partner, Law Offices of Stewart and Stewart, and author of the blog, bodog poker review|Most Popular_Congressional

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Caroline Hillier — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 16:27:43 +0000

Today is International Women’s Day. With the pandemic still occupying center stage in global affairs, the UN effort on its Sustainable Development Goal 5 to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” is in trouble. Women have been disproportionately adversely affected by the pandemic, tens millions leaving the workforce to take care of children, tens of millions losing jobs and having no safety net. Various reports have reviewed the disparities and the loss of progress towards achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. See, e.g., UN Women, From Insights To Action, Gender Equality in the Wake of COVID-19 (September 2020); (“The pandemic has widened gender and economic inequalities.” “COVID-19 is exposing vulnerabilities in social, political and economic systems. It is forcing a shift in priorities and funding across public and private sectors, with far-reaching effects on the well-being of women and girls. Action must be taken now to stop this backsliding.”); UN Women, SPOTLIGHT ON GENDER, COVID-19 AND THE SDGS, WILL THE PANDEMIC DERAIL HARD-WON PROGRESS ON GENDER EQUALITY?, https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2020/spotlight-on-gender-covid-19-and-the-sdgs-en.pdf?la=en&vs=5013.

It is against this backdrop that statements and actions today on the importance of Women to the achievement of sustainable development goals should be seen. Below are materials from the UN Women’s Executive Director, the heads of the three Geneva organizations with a trade mission or function that are headed by women, and the announced actions today by President Biden in the United States.

UN Women Executive Director Statement

The following statement was made today by the UN Women Executive Director. See International Women’s Day Statement by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Women Executive Director, on International Women’s Day 2021, Change up the pace: women at the table, March 8, 2021, https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2021/3/statement-ed-phumzile-international-womens-day-2021. The statement is copied below in its entirety.

“International Women’s Day this year comes at a difficult time for the world and for gender equality, but at a perfect moment to fight for transformative action and to salute women and young people for their relentless drive for gender equality and human rights. Our focus is on women’s leadership and on ramping up representation in all the areas where decisions are made – currently mainly by men – about the issues that affect women’s lives. The universal and catastrophic lack of representation of women’s interests has gone on too long.

“As we address the extraordinary hardship that COVID-19 has brought to millions of women and girls and their communities, we also look ahead to the solid opportunities of the Generation Equality Forum and Action Coalitions to bring change.

“During the pandemic, we have seen increased violence against women and girls and lost learning for girls as school drop-out rates, care responsibilities and child marriages rise. We are seeing tens of millions more women plunge into extreme poverty, as they lose their jobs at a higher rate than men, and pay the price for a lack of digital access and skills. These and many other problems cannot be left to men alone to solve. Yet, while there are notable exceptions, in most countries there is simply not the critical mass of women in decision-making and leadership positions to ensure that these issues are tabled and dealt with effectively and this has affected the pace of change for women overall.

“There are breakthroughs to celebrate, where women have taken the helm of organizations such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank and we look forward to more such appointments that help to change the picture of what a leader looks like. Yet this is not the norm. In2020, as a global average, women were 4.4 per cent of CEOs, occupied just 16.9 per cent of board seats, made up only 25 per cent of national parliamentarians, and just 13 per cent of peace negotiators. Only 22 countries currently have a woman as Head of State or Government and 119 have never experienced this – something that has important consequences for the aspirations of girls growing up. On the current trajectory, we won’t see gender parity in the highest office before 2150.

“This can and must change. What is needed is the political will to actively and intentionally support women’s representation. Leaders can set and meet parity targets, including through appointments for all executive positions at all levels of government, as has occurred in the few countries with gender equal cabinets. Special measures can work; where countries have put in place and enforced quotas, they have made real progress on women’s leadership, as have those that have policies to address representation. Where these measures do not exist, progress is slower or even nonexistent and easily reversed.

“No country prospers without the engagement of women. We need women’s representation that reflects all women and girls in all their diversity and abilities, and across all cultural, social, economic and political situations. This is the only way we will get real societal change that incorporates women in decision-making as equals and benefits us all.

‘This is the vision of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals and the vision of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. It is the vision of civil society and multitudes of young people who are already leading the way and of all those who will join us in the Generation Equality Action Coalitions. We need bold decisive action across the world to bring women into the heart of the decision-making spaces in large numbers and as full partners, so that we can make immediate progress on a greener, equitable and inclusive world.”

Video of Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of the WTO, Acting Secretary-General Isabelle Durant of UNCTAD, and Executive Director Pamela Coke-Hamilton of the International Trade Centre

For International Women’s Day, the three heads of multilateral organizations in Geneva involved in trade put out a video entitled, International Women’s Day — Leading global trade: Three women, three organizations. The note accompanying the video states “For the first time, all three major global trade organizations have women leaders: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at the WTO, Isabelle Durant at UNCTAD and Pamela Coke-Hamilton at ITC. On International Women’s Day, they talk about the importance of looking at trade through a gender lens, and how trade can help tackle the challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.” https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news_e.htm.

Top priorities to boost recovery outlined by the three leaders include the following. For Director-General Okonjo-Iweala, her first priority to boost economic recovery, is the health aspect. “It is absolutely a top priority for me that we should look at how to make equitable and affordable access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics happen. It is unconscionable that any countries or peoples should be waiting for any of these medical products. And we know that until we tackle the health challenges, we will not be able to really get a handle on the economic challenges and return to a sustainable growth path that would spell recovery from the pandemic. So that’s a really important priority. Second is what can trade do to boost the economic recovery? How can we liberalize trade in certain sectors to make sure that supply chains stay open and work and that countries can produce more and sell more? So what can trade contribute to that? It’s a priority for me that export restrictions and prohibitions that have been put by countries during this time of the pandemic be dropped or minimized or phased out very quickly so that we can have a freer flow of goods and intermediate inputs. So those are two top priorities that I think we need to focus on to boost economic recovery.”

For Acting Secretary-General Durant, her first priority is “to ensure that our institutions contribute to making trade a real tool for recovery, especially for those countries, groups and sectors that have paid a high price due to the pandemic. My priority is that everything we provide them in terms of analysis, data, technical and intergovernmental support helps them steer their recovery towards more inclusive and greener sectors and strategies. Climate change is indeed the greatest threat to current and future generations. Countries need urgently to start planning and implementing actions to adapt their production and trade to the ruthless effects of climate change: what does this imply for better production methods; new comparative advantages; investments; diversification of their economies; and regional integration and value chains? I have the same concern for fairness in the digital revolution. How can developing countries derive the greatest benefit for their development, and become players in it, when digital technology has become the driving force of the economy? COVID has shown the importance of digital infrastructure, policies and skills. More than ever, we need the cooperation, expertise and experience of all to build the road to recovery, because we all know that countries we are far from being equal when it comes to these issues.” (English translation from French as provided in the video).

For Executive Director Pamela Coke-Hamilton, her first priorities are “empowerment and equality — empowerment by building resiliency for MSMEs through partnership; empowerment for recovery by moving towards greener trade. ITC is starting a new initiative to support MSMEs and green trade, helping MSMEs adopt more sustainable practices, pursue opportunities in the circular economy and participate in greener supply chains. Empowerment through digital inclusion by promoting greater integration of MSMEs in digital economies and facilitate digital access for all. Empowerment of women and youths. A dedicated program at ITC will lead the way to women’s economic empowerment, and we will continue to work with governments to build an eco-system of new and innovative jobs for youths. And secondly, equality. Ultimately we want to make sure that no one is left behind as we seek paths for recovery, and build resilience against future shocks. COVID-19 has loaid bare the depths of inequality still prevailing from the global economic system. We must choose to challenge the status quo, and as women we will.”

Action by President Biden

President Biden provided a statement on International Women’s Day and issued two Executive Orders. See Statement by President Biden on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/08/statement-by-president-biden-on-international-womens-day/; Executive Order on Establishment of the White House Gender Policy Council, March 8, 2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/03/08/executive-order-on-establishment-of-the-white-house-gender-policy-council/; bodog casino Executive Order on Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free from Discrimination on the Basis of Sex, Including Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity, March 8, 2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/03/08/executive-order-on-guaranteeing-an-educational-environment-free-from-discrimination-on-the-basis-of-sex-including-sexual-orientation-or-gender-identity/; Fact Sheet: President Biden to Sign Executive Orders Establishing the White House Gender Policy Council and Ensuring Education Free from Sexual Violence, March 8, 2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/08/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-sign-executive-orders-establishing-the-white-house-gender-policy-council-and-ensuring-education-free-from-sexual-violence/. The President’s statement is copied below as is the fact sheet on the two Executive Orders.

“Women’s history is American history — and world history. On International Women’s Day, we celebrate the achievements, contributions, and progress of women and girls in the United States and around the globe.

“My Administration is committed to honoring women by investing in their opportunity, security, and wellbeing. I was proud to issue an Executive Order today establishing the White House Gender Policy Council, to ensure that every domestic and foreign policy we pursue rests on a foundation of dignity and equity for women. My Administration is also committed to ensuring that women are represented equally at all levels of the federal government. That starts with Vice President Harris, who broke through a barrier that stood for more than two centuries. And it includes a record number of diverse women whom I’ve nominated to serve in Cabinet-level roles and appointed to senior-level positions.

“In our nation, as in all nations, women have fought for justice, shattered barriers, built and sustained economies, carried communities through times of crisis, and served with dignity and resolve. Too often, they have done so while being denied the freedom, full participation, and equal opportunity all women are due. Their contributions have been downplayed. Their stories have been neglected. That is why International Women’s Day is also a time for us to recommit ourselves to the cause of equity and equality for women the world over, and to shine a light on the systemic obstacles that fuel gender disparities and undermine women’s potential.

“Despite persistent obstacles, women are leading every day. Over the past year, women have played a critical, often outsized role in responding to the global coronavirus pandemic. They are our vaccine researchers and public health officials. They are our doctors and nurses. They are our essential workers — so many of whom are women of color — in fire stations and nursing homes, on farms and in grocery stores, in schools and in shelters.

“Around the world, we are seeing decades of women’s economic gains erased by this pandemic. It’s forcing millions more girls out of school, which could impact economic growth for decades to come. Incidents of violence against women in their homes and communities have spiked. And, as is so often the case, COVID-19 is hitting the poorest and most marginalized women the hardest. These global trends damage all of us, because we know that governments, economies, and communities are stronger when they include the full participation of women — no country can recover from this pandemic if it leaves half of its population behind.

“Elevating the status of women and girls globally is the right thing to do — it is a matter of justice, fairness, and decency, and it will lead to a better, more secure, and more prosperous world for us all. On International Women’s Day, let us recommit to the principle that our nation, and the world, is at its best when the possibilities for all of our women and girls are limitless.”

Fact Sheet

“Biden-Harris Administration establishes a government-wide focus on uplifting the rights of women and girls in the United States and around the world

“The full participation of all people – including women and girls – across all aspects of our society is essential to the economic well-being, health, and security of our nation and of the world. This is a matter of human rights, justice and fairness. It is also critically important to reducing poverty and promoting economic growth, increasing access to education, improving health outcomes, advancing political stability, and fostering democracy.

“Today, President Biden will sign two Executive Orders. The first establishes the White House Gender Policy Council to ensure that the Biden-Harris Administration advances gender equity and equal rights and opportunity for women and girls. The second directs the Department of Education (ED) to review all of its existing regulations, orders, guidance, and policies for consistency with the Administration’s policy to guarantee education free from sexual violence.

“A year into COVID-19, women are still contending with the public health crisis, an ensuing economic crisis, and on top of those challenges, a caregiving crisis. The pandemic has exacerbated barriers that have held back women, especially women of color, forcing many to leave the workforce, manage virtual schooling, and absorb additional caregiving responsibilities. Many women are also on the frontlines of the response to COVID-19 – as essential workers keeping our economy, communities and families going. As the country continues to grapple with the pandemic and reckons with the scourge of systemic racism, President Biden knows that we need a government-wide focus on uplifting the rights of women and girls in the United States and around the world, restoring America as a champion for gender equity and equality.

“Today’s actions will:

“Establish the Gender Policy Council. The first Executive Order formally establishes the Gender Policy Council within the Executive Office of the President, with a role in both domestic and foreign policy development. The Council will work in coordination with the existing policy councils to advance gender equity and equality, including by:

“Combatting systemic bias and discrimination, including sexual harassment;

“Increasing economic security and opportunity by addressing the structural barriers to women’s participation in the labor force, decreasing wage and wealth gaps, and addressing the caregiving needs of American families and supporting care workers, predominantly low-paid women of color;

“Ensuring access to comprehensive health care and preventing and responding to gender-based violence;

“Promoting equity and opportunity in education and leadership; and

“Advancing gender equality globally through diplomacy, development, trade, and defense, and by recognizing the needs and roles of women and girls in conflict prevention, peacebuilding, democratic rights-respecting governance, global health and humanitarian crises and development assistance.

“The White House Gender Policy Council will be an essential part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s plan to ensure we build a more equal and just society – by aggressively protecting the rights and unique needs of those who experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including individuals who are Black, Latina, Native, Asian American and Pacific Islander, people with disabilities, and LGBTQI+.

“The Executive Order requires the Co-Chairs of the Council to submit to the President a Government-wide strategy to address gender in policies, programs and budgets, and an annual report to measure progress on implementing the strategy. To prevent and respond to gender-based violence, wherever it occurs, there will be a Special Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor on Gender-Based Violence on the Council staff. The Executive Order also requires engagement with non-profit and community-based organizations, state and local government officials, Tribal Nations, foreign government officials and multilateral organizations.

“Ensure education free from sexual violence. President Biden will sign an Executive Order that will direct the Department of Education (ED) to review all of its existing regulations, orders, guidance, and policies to ensure consistency with the Biden-Harris Administration’s policy that students be guaranteed education free from sexual violence. It also directs ED to specifically evaluate the Title IX regulation issued under the previous administration and agency action taken pursuant to that regulation, to determine whether the regulation and agency action are consistent with the policies of the Biden-Harris Administration.”

Conclusion

The WTO at its 2017 Ministerial Conference held in Buenos Aires saw a joint declaration on women and trade released. There are currently 127 WTO Members who support the declaration. There was an interim report released in 2019 and an informal working group on trade and gender working on a voluntary basis to share information and best practices in ways to increase women’s role in global trade. Such activities are a start for the WTO, but much more could be done if there was greater support by the Members. The 2020-21 selection of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was an important action and will likely presage change at the Secretariat. Her priorities as reviewed in today’s video address trade issues that are important to economic recovery which may facilitate greater movement towards gender equality.

The challenges women face globally during the pandemic are significantly greater than those faced by men both in terms of lost employment, withdrawal from the workforce to deal with child care and much more. The UN Sustainable Development Goal of gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls is important for many reasons. In trade, gender equality will promote growth and innovation. This is true in all societies regardless of level of economic development.

The pandemic has pushed back progress in economic development for much of the world as has been often reported and has slowed or reversed the drive for gender equality and empowerment of half the world’s population.. More focus and efforts are needed to ensure achieving the UN SDG 5 by 2030. Trade is but one aspect of the challenge.

Today’s speeches by the three leaders of multilateral organizations handling trade show some of the broader issues facing global trade to recover from the pandemic and highlight the capabilities of women leading important organizations. The UN Women’s Executive Director highlighted the deep societal challenges that continue to retard gender equality in fact in many parts of the world.

Finally, the actions by President Biden and his Administration are the types of actions needed by countries who have not achieved gender equality to date. More can and must be done by nations around the world. International Women’s Day is a reminder of the enormous global opportunities that exist if gender equality and empowerment of women and girls is achieved.

To view the original blog post, please click here

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Anne Allen Hodge — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 20:23:52 +0000

This commentary is the second of a four-part series that examines the intersection between trade and gender. Though the term “gender” can encompass a variety of identities, the series will limit its consideration of gender differences to differences between women and men, due to limited data availability and other practical considerations. This installment considers what we can learn from the labor and environment chapters in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to design gender clauses for future agreements. Over the next several months, CSIS will consider three case studies to inform research on existing gendered trade barriers before producing gender-specific model language for policymakers’ use in future trade agreements.

As discussed in the first installment of this commentary series, gender-specific language in trade agreements is rare. Mentions of the unique trade challenges that women face globally—such as gender discrimination in import taxes and reduced access to trade finance—rarely appear. When agreements do include gender provisions, the language is often vague and unenforceable, and seldom requires action. Many countries continue to resist addressing gender in agreements despite findings from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) that trade policy is not gender neutral. Indeed, data show that trade agreement provisions often have different impacts on women and men and can lead to higher barriers to trade for women.

Though gender provisions that do exist in trade agreements broadly affirm gender equality, advocate for equal pay, and address workplace discrimination against women, more detailed language and obligations can lead to more measurable impacts. These impacts would benefit everyone, not just women. For example, abolishing customs duties, increasing market access, encouraging investment, and supporting women in the workforce can lead to higher employment and GDP, a more highly skilled labor force, and more competitive economic opportunities.

CSIS is conducting research on how best to promote the inclusion of gender commitments in trade negotiations and agreements. In considering the implementation of gender-specific trade language, it is useful to reflect on the treatment of two particular trade topics: labor and environment. Both policy areas have merited their own chapters in trade agreements over the past few decades. In this commentary, we consider how the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) can inform future agreements’ recognition and treatment of gender disparities. Some of the politics surrounding USMCA negotiations may also foreshadow the political challenges that proposed text on gender could face in the United States.

Labor

The first trade agreement to include labor provisions was the 1994 North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), which accompanied the 1992 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA, the precursor to today’s USMCA). Since then, agreements have added stronger labor-specific provisions; referenced key International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions, such as the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work; and subjected labor chapters to dispute settlement.

Notably, the World Trade Organization (WTO) does not maintain its own labor standards. It instead leaves the treatment of labor to the ILO, which lacks robust enforcement mechanisms. As a result, a number of WTO member states have dragged their feet on including labor clauses in their trade agreements. For example, countries that seek to attract foreign investment might benefit from maintaining low labor standards and resist the inclusion of stringent standards in trade agreements. The United States, however, has taken a different approach; in contrast to its agreements’ historical disregard for gender, the country has proven itself a leader in promoting labor rights through free trade agreements (FTAs). All FTAs the United States has signed since 1994 have included labor provisions, a practice that was established through the May 10 Agreement requiring their inclusion and the 2015 Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) requiring their subjection to dispute settlement mechanisms (DSMs).

Despite U.S. leadership on labor rights issues, the inclusion of these provisions in trade agreements does not guarantee they sufficiently address all labor-related issues, especially those that primarily affect women. Most agreements with labor provisions address key worker rights, such as reasonable working hours, occupational safety and health, minimum wage, and the freedom of association and right to organize. However, few condemn forced labor, and even fewer acknowledge labor challenges that disproportionately affect women, who comprise 59 percent of the world’s employment in services. Such challenges are often implicit; for example, an agreement that does not mandate domestic legislation on parental leave or childcare may hinder women’s ability to start their own export businesses, gain employment to pay for trade finance workshops, or network with trade partners relative to men. Failure to address these issues may widen an existing leadership and pay gender gap, which has only worsened during the pandemic. Enforcement of labor obligations has historically been slow and insufficient. For example, the United States has brought only one labor rights case to an FTA’s DSM, in 2010. An arbitral panel was formed in 2012 and, in 2017, failed to recognize labor rights violations the United States alleged against Guatemala. (The panel left no opportunity for appeal.) Absent effective enforcement action, labor and gender obligations, no matter how robust, will have limited impact.

The Evolution of U.S. Labor Provisions in Trade Agreements

Source: Congressional Research Service

The USMCA, which replaced NAFTA and entered into force on July 1, 2020, has been widely praised for the strength of its labor chapter relative to those in previous agreements, in part due to its ban on imports produced by forced labor. (The ban follows from Congress’s 2015 removal of the “consumptive demand” clause in Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which permitted the importation of products made with forced labor if domestic demand proved it necessary.) Still, the chapter’s language on gender is weak. In Article 23.9, the United States, Mexico, and Canada “recognize the goal of eliminating discrimination in employment and occupation and support the goal of promoting equality of women in the workplace” (emphasis added); specific measures to act on that recognition and support are not described. In Article 23.12, the parties “recognize the importance of cooperation” in “addressing gender-related issues in the field of labor and employment” but do not commit to specific measures to further that goal. The result: though the USMCA’s labor chapter may represent increased commitment to labor rights overall, it does not actively seek to reduce gender disparities in trade in a specific or enforceable manner. Though some have hailed the USMCA as strong enough to serve as a template for future FTAs, its absence of actionable gender provisions is noteworthy.

Environment

Though the inclusion of environmental provisions in trade agreements may seem nascent relative to labor, environmental protections were introduced in the original General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947—almost 50 years before NAFTA explicitly referenced labor. GATT allows for environmental exceptions to general provisions through Article XX(b) (“necessary for the protection of human, animal or plant life or health”) and Article XX(g) (“relating to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources”). It was updated in 1994 at the WTO’s inception but maintained these clauses. That same year, NAFTA became the first FTA to reference the environment, along with its complementary side letter on North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC). As with labor provisions, environmental provisions have featured in all U.S. FTAs negotiated since.

The United States has included dedicated environment chapters in its FTAs because it benefits economically from similar environmental standards among its trade partners. Strong environmental regulations in trade agreements prevent a “race to the bottom,” which could further harm the environment and decrease the relative competitiveness of U.S. businesses. Thus, it is in the United States’ interest to ensure that FTA partners enforce their own environmental laws (to avoid weakening or ignoring protections that could unfairly encourage trade or investment) and promote sustainable development (to strengthen partner countries’ capacity to protect their environment). Environment chapters also may require members to implement and enforce multilateral environmental agreements to which signatories of the agreement are party in order to ensure compatibility of the signatories’ environment-related trade policies.

Despite these measures, the United States continues to perform poorly in environmental rankings. The July 2020 Environmental Performance Index (EPI, put out by Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy) ranks it 24th out of 180 economies, while the December 2020 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI, released by three German organizations) ranks the United States last out of 58 economies chosen for the index, which collectively contribute more than 90 percent of Bodog Poker the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Our consideration of environmental trade clauses has less to do with how they reinforce existing systems that suppress women’s trade access and more to do with what their increased prevalence might say about the political feasibility of including gender-specific language in future agreements. Does broad acceptance of the need for environmental chapters bode well for gender chapter advocates?

The USMCA again provides an illustrative example here. Last year, 89 senators voted to ratify the agreement with its standalone environment chapter and the complementary Environmental Cooperation Agreement (ECA), reflecting the environment’s growing political importance. The inclusion of this chapter certainly represents a win for green advocates. Yet, the USMCA does not mention climate change, which is considered by many to be a pillar of the global environmental agenda (and the primary reason that 9 of 10 senators, including now-vice president Kamala Harris, voted against it). The USMCA environment chapter also does not commit its parties to reducing carbon emissions, nor does it reference relevant binding treaties such as the Paris Agreement or explicitly promote renewable energy. In other words, the existence of an environment chapter—or a labor or gender chapter—may not mean much if its substance does not explicitly address key issues.

In the same way that partisan rhetoric surrounded the development of the USMCA’s environment chapter—voiced mostly by Democrats concerned with its weaknesses—a “centrist” position on gender could draw opposition from both sides of the political aisle and threaten the chapter’s ultimate effectiveness. Progressive Democrats could dismiss a tepid chapter on gender issues as not going far enough, while Republicans might oppose what they might see as a social goal whose inclusion is unnecessary for an economic agreement. (In fact, 46 Republicans did just that when they protested a USMCA clause protecting workers from “employment discrimination on the basis of sex.” A footnote was then added to assert that the United States’ existing policies were sufficient to meet this condition.) Such a stalemate would be par for the course in the U.S. Congress, particularly with an evenly split Senate. As a result, it is reasonable to believe that members of both parties could agree only to generalized, value-driven commitments to promote gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in trade agreements. Still, it is important to push for more specific commitments.

Let us be clear: there remains hope for the inclusion of specific gender commitments in U.S. trade agreements. It took time for robust labor and environmental obligations to develop. Those protections evolved from ancillary accords to weak clauses within agreements to full chapters, some of which are enforceable. Gender obligations in trade agreements could benefit from those precedents set by labor and environment negotiations and follow a similar path. It may take time for such obligations to become effective, but the impact that accrues to women in trade—and all market participants—will be well worth the effort.

Gender

Considering the nuances of gender in trade agreements comes after the first hurdle: addressing gender at all.

For most economies, including the United States’, explicitly recognizing the unique difficulties faced by women in trade would be a major first step. Such acknowledgment could appear in an agreement’s preamble, which would not be subject to a DSM and therefore pose minimal political risk. For agreements that reference these challenges but do not have a standalone gender chapter, such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement that recently entered into force, introducing a gender chapter would reiterate the economy’s commitment to correcting gender imbalances in trade.

Two main approaches have been proposed to promote the inclusion of gender in FTAs. The first is gender mainstreaming, which incorporates gender-related provisions throughout trade deals. By “mainstreaming” gender, the approach allows trade partners to address related issues across all policy areas—even procurement or pharmaceuticals, for example—and to enforce appropriate gender-responsive policies. As described in our first commentary, mainstreaming gender helps prevent uninterested policymakers from relegating the topic to a brief, unenforceable clause or chapter.

The second approach employs standalone chapters dedicated to gender-specific trade issues, such as those in several FTAs written by Canada and Chile. The existing gender chapters in the Canada-Chile, Chile-Argentina, and Canada-Israel FTAs include general provisions on gender issues; commitments to international agreements on women’s rights; and identification of areas of bilateral cooperation, such as capacity building, skills enhancement of women at work and in business, and promoting financial training. To maximize their positive impact on women’s market access, trade agreements should feature both gender mainstreaming and standalone gender chapters.

The USMCA’s failure to describe or commit to addressing gender-specific issues renders its structure inappropriate as a template for future agreements. The politics behind its negotiation prevented parts of the agreement, such as the environment chapter, from fully addressing all relevant issues. Going forward, the Biden administration should prioritize the inclusion and enforcement of gender clauses and chapters in trade agreements. Through use of clear, enforceable, gender-specific language, U.S. trade agreements could credibly commit to improving women’s access to global trade.

In the next installment of this series, CSIS will consider the role that gender may or may not play in trade negotiations. Drawing on available data and primary research, we hope to broadly describe the extent to which the gender of trade negotiators—and of the decisionmakers who determine negotiators’ priorities—may impact the final language of trade agreements.

Ally Brodsky is a temporary research assistant with the Scholl Chair in International Business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Jasmine Lim is a program coordinator and research assistant with the CSIS Scholl Chair. Jack Caporal is a fellow with the CSIS Scholl Chair. Will O’Neil is a research intern with the CSIS Scholl Chair.

Commentary is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).

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Anne Allen Hodge — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 19:07:22 +0000

Senate Finance Committee Hearing on Nomination of Katherine Tai to be U.S. Trade Representative

Opening Statement of Ambassador-designate Katherine Tai Before the Senate Finance Committee

Washington, DC – The Office of the United States Trade Representative today released the opening statement of Ambassador-designate Katherine Tai before the Senate Finance Committee. In her prepared remarks, Tai outlines her vision for leading the agency in pursuit of trade policies that will benefit all Americans and help jumpstart the economy. Tai also details her commitment to re-engaging international institutions to address common threats like climate change, the COVID pandemic, and the global economic downturn. The full text of Ambassador-designate Tai’s remarks is below:

Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Crapo, and members of the Committee — thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.

The chance to serve the American people, fight on their behalf, and represent them on the world stage once again will be the greatest honor of my life. It’s a privilege I’ve experienced before at the Office of the United States Trade Representative — and a responsibility that, if confirmed, I look forward to embracing once again. I thank President Biden for providing me with this opportunity.

Serving as the top U.S. trade representative around the globe holds special resonance for me as the daughter of immigrants.

My parents were born in mainland China, and grew up in Taiwan. The immigration reforms set in motion by President Kennedy opened a path for them to come here as graduate students in the sciences. And they made the most of their American opportunity.

My dad became a researcher at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He helped the Army develop treatments for illnesses that had debilitated GIs during the Vietnam War – the war in which my father-in-law fought bravely as a young man.

My mom still works at the National Institutes of Health. She heads a clinical trials network, developing treatments for opioid addiction that will help to stem an epidemic causing so much suffering in our communities.

I am proud of their service to the nation that welcomed them. And I am proud to live in a country where, in just one generation, their daughter could grow up to represent the United States and our interests around the globe.

That sense of pride and patriotism will ground me every day if I have the honor to be confirmed as United States Trade Representative.

I know that the challenges ahead are significant.

Our first priority will be to help American communities emerge from the pandemic and economic crisis. USTR has an important role to play in that effort. Working with Congress, the entire Biden-Harris administration, and other countries and trusted partners, USTR will help to build out strong supply chains that will get our economy back on track.

In the longer term, we must pursue trade policies that advance the interests of all Americans — policies that recognize that people are workers and wage earners, not just consumers; policies that promote broad, equitable growth here at home; policies that support American innovation and enhance our competitive edge.

That’s why I will make it a priority to implement and enforce the renewed terms of our trade relationship with Canada and Mexico. Too often in the past, Congress and the administration came together to finalize and pass a trade agreement. But then other urgent matters arose and we all moved on. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is a uniquely bipartisan accomplishment that must break that trend. It represents an important step in reforming our approach to trade. We must all continue to prioritize its implementation and success. We must continue to pursue trade policies that are ambitious in achieving robust, bipartisan support.

I will also prioritize rebuilding our international alliances and partnerships, and re-engaging with international institutions. We must do the hard work, and secure the necessary reforms that allow the world to come together and address common threats like climate change, the COVID pandemic, and a global economic downturn.

That duty of leadership extends, of course, to addressing the challenges posed by China.

I previously served as America’s chief enforcer against China’s unfair trade practices. I know firsthand how critically important it is that we have a strategic and coherent plan for holding China accountable to its promises and effectively competing with its model of state-directed economics. I know the opportunities and limitations in our existing toolbox. And I know how important it is to build what the President has termed “a united front of U.S. allies.”

We must recommit to working relentlessly with others to promote and defend our shared values of freedom, democracy, truth, and opportunity in a just society.

China is simultaneously a rival, a trade partner, and an outsized player whose cooperation we’ll also need to address certain global challenges. We must remember how to walk, chew gum and play chess at the same time. That means here at home, we must prioritize resilience and make the investments in our people and our infrastructure to harness our potential, boost our competitiveness, and build a more inclusive prosperity. We must also impart the values and rules that guide global commerce — and we must enforce those terms vigorously.

This is work I am eager to take on once more.

Having spent my career fighting for American workers, I am honored by the opportunity to work alongside the bright and dedicated public servants at USTR, with our partners and allies, and with each of you. Having served nearly seven years in the House of Representatives, I know that U.S. trade policy is most successful when it is conducted through a healthy partnership between the administration and the Congress.

I look forward to bringing our trade relationships to bear helping American communities emerge out of crisis and into greater prosperity.

And I look forward to answering your questions.

Thank you.

To view the full statement on the USTR website, please click here

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Anne Allen Hodge — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:02:23 +0000

The Special Session of the WTO General Council yesterday, February 15, 2021, which was called for the sole purpose of appointing the next Director-General, ran especially long, some four hours, as many WTO Members took to the floor (virtually) to congratulate Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on her appointment as the next WTO Director-General. The appointment marks the first time the WTO or its predecessor the GATT has been headed by a woman, and the first time it has been headed by an African. At the end of the special meeting of the General Council, the next Director-General held a press conference for about an hour. During the press conference, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was asked how reporters should address her. Her answer was as Dr. Ngozi (Director-General Ngozi after February 28). I use “Dr. Ngozi” in the rest of this post.

While a normal term for the Director-General is four years, the WTO Members could have appointed Dr. Ngozi for the remainder of the four years from September 1, 2020-August 31, 2024 (i.e., the period from when Roberto Azevedo stepped down at the end of August), a four year period from March 1, 2021 – February 28, 2025 (i.e., the four year period from when she starts as Director-General), or could have brought the first period back in line with the four year cycles that would have prevailed if Roberto Azevedo had stayed til August 31, 2021. The WTO membership has set Dr. Ngozi’s first term at the longer option, March 1, 2021 – August 31, 2025.

The special meeting was not open to the public, and minutes from the meeting are not yet available. As the only agenda item was the appointment of the next Director-General, the process presumably consisted of the Chairman of the General Council, Amb. David Walker (New Zealand), with the concurrence of his facilitators in the selection process Amb. Dacio Castillo of Honduras (Chairman of the Dispute Settlement Body) and Amb. Harald Aspelund of Iceland (Chairman of the Trade Policy Review Body), putting forward the recommendation that Dr. Ngozi be appointed as the next Director-General. Without objection, Dr. Ngozi received the consensus support of the Members. Following that Dr. Ngozi provided a statement which both thanks the “troika” for their efforts during the selection process and reviewed her vision of the priorities for the WTO. Her full statement is embedded below (JOB/GC/250).

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Some excerpts lay out the major priorities and shows the daunting challenges facing WTO Members and the new Director-General:

“1.9 * * * For the global economy to return to sustained growth, the global community will need to get a tight grip on the pandemic by intensifying cooperation to make equitable and affordable access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics a key plank of the recovery. With new COVID variants spreading rapidly all over, we must have a sense of urgency to getting control of the pandemic. The WTO can and must play a more forceful role in exercising its monitoring function and encouraging Members to minimise or remove export restrictions and prohibitions that hinder supply chains for medical goods and equipment. The International Trade Centre recently reported that up to 100 countries still maintain export restrictions and prohibitions.” (emphasis added)

“1.10. WTO Members have a further responsibility to reject vaccine nationalism and protectionism. They should rather intensify cooperation on promising new vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. There should be a ‘third way’ to broaden access through facilitating technology transfer within the framework of multilateral rules, so as to encourage research and innovation while at the same time allowing licensing agreements that help scale up manufacturing of medical products.”

“1.11 * * * At MC12, the success of which is a top priority for us all, we must reach agreement on some pressing issues and elaborate on work programmes for others. Apart from the issues related to the pandemic, I hope that we would have finalised the fisheries subsidies negotiations, leaving MC12 as the venue to conclude on modalities for implementation.”

“1.12. Reform of the dispute settlement system, which has been a central element in guaranteeing security and predictability of the multilateral trading system, is of utmost importance to the membership. Some Members have criticised the way it functions and demanded reforms. It will be important to agree on the nature of these reforms, flesh them out, and develop a work programme for implementation that can be advanced at MC12. I believe that the set of recommendations proposed by Ambassador Walker could provide Members with a platform upon which to build so as to restore confidence in the dispute settlement system. A strengthened and robust system is in the interest of all Members, and as such, every effort should be made to improve it. We need a system that can garner the confidence of all, including small developing and least developed countries who have found it challenging to utilize.”

“1.13. The WTO rule book is outdated, and its rules lag behind those of several regional and bilateral trade agreements which are incorporating a lot of innovations. The rulebook must be updated to take account of 21st century realities such as e-commerce and the digital economy. The pandemic has heightened the importance and accelerated the role of e-commerce, which is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. E-commerce offers important opportunities for inclusivity of MSMEs and women in international trade, especially in developing countries. To make it possible for some developing and least developed countries to participate in the e-commerce negotiations, we must partner with governments and other organizations to bridge the digital divide. Success in the e-commerce negotiations could provide an impetus for reviving more broadly the negotiations on Trade in Services, a sector of increasing importance in the economy of most Members. Plurilateral initiatives have brought new energy in the Multilateral Trading System. Negotiating work on other joint statement initiatives – domestic regulation and investment facilitation – has continued fairly intensively despite the pandemic. Participants need to pursue their efforts to build support and attract interest from a significant part of the WTO membership, including from developing countries with a view to concluding at least the domestic regulation by MC12.”

“1.14. We should also work to ensure that the WTO best supports the green and circular economy and addresses more broadly the nexus between trade and climate change.”

“1.15. The WTO’s work in new or innovative areas does not mean that traditional topics such as agriculture are forgotten. Agriculture is particularly important for many developing and least developing countries. Improving market access for export products of interest to these countries is of paramount importance, as is dealing with trade distorting domestic support. The growing domestic support entitlements of Members must be addressed to level the playing field, so as to provide opportunities for small scale farmers. In addition, it is possible for an early agreement on removal of export restrictions including favorable consideration of the exemption of WFP humanitarian purchases. Likewise, we must also strengthen disciplines on industrial subsidies. bodog sportsbook review In that regard, it would be important to ensure that subsidies granted by Members to their state-owned enterprises in certain situations do not distort the conditions of competition. The issue of Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) is a divisive one that undermines trust. However, the voluntary action of some developing country Members to not avail themselves of SDT in the future points a way forward, so does the Trade Facilitation Agreement which allowed for taking into account each Member’s particular development status.”

“1.16 * * * Transparency is the lifeblood of the system and every effort should be made to assist Members to meet their notification and transparency obligations. The development and streamlining of online tools, including the introduction of E-agendas is a step in the right direction. Some WTO rules and procedures also need to be revisited, including the procedures for appointing DGs. Regarding Ministerials, Article IV of the Marrakesh Agreement provides that ‘there shall be an MC composed of representatives of all Members which shall meet at least once every two years.’ In today’s fast changing, fast paced, but uncertain world, it may be opportune for members to review the frequency of Ministerials to assess whether yearly meetings would allow Members to better appraise the health of the MTS, surface problems, and together advance timely solutions. Furthermore, Members take decisions on the basis of consensus, and rightly so, since Article IX:1 of the Marrakesh Agreement provides that ‘the WTO shall continue the practice of decision-making by consensus followed under the GATT’ but Members must be vigilant that the quest for consensus does not create situations in which welfare enhancing innovations or approaches of benefit to the membership are frustrated.”

“1.17. The WTO Secretariat should be strengthened to enable it to provide cutting edge services to the membership in all relevant areas of WTO’s work, including implementation, monitoring, dispute settlement and negotiations. An important change will be to move away from the current siloed way of working to a more team and task-based approach. The Secretariat has to be fit for purpose to take account of the changing dynamics of the global economy and priorities of Members.”

During the press conference, Dr. Ngozi reviewed many of the above priorities but emphasized the critical importance of focusing first on the pandemic which means getting better control over export restraints and addressing the role the WTO can play in ensuring access to vaccines and other medical goods. Preparation for the 12th Ministerial Conference likely to take place near the end of 2021 is next and includes concluding the fisheries subsidies, progress on Joint Statement Initiatives (e.g., e-commerce, domestic regulations, etc.) and agreeing to a process for addressing the impasse on dispute settlement.

While yesterday’s Special Session was a time of celebration and expressions of support for the incoming Director-General, the ultimate success of the WTO under Dr. Ngozi’s leadership will depend on the ability of Members with very different interests to reach agreement on the road forward. Dr. Ngozi was selected in part for her promise to bring a fresh pair of eyes and push for a change in how the organization operates (“not business as usual”). But success is anything but assured. While Dr. Ngozi has focused on a lack of trust among Members, some have argued that it is really a lack of common purpose/objective among the membership that has resulted in an inability to move the organization forward. The move to bilateral and plurilateral agreements and Joint Statement Initiatives over the last dozen years is a reflection of the inability to get all Members on board initiatives to keep the organization moving forward. The twenty years that the fisheries subsidies negotiations have been dragging on and the inability of Members to focus on the objective of preserving fishing for future generations vs. minimizing the disciplines they accept reinforces the concern that the deep divisions among the membership doom multilateralism.

In a post from Saturday, I had urged Dr. Ngozi to think big in terms of her inner team and the four Deputies Director-General that will help her. With all of the critical issues before the WTO, Dr. Ngozi will need as deep and talented a team as she can assemble to permit extension of her reach to avoid the stagnation that has characterized the organization, assuming common ground can be found among the Members.

Dr. Ngozi’s appointment has given the WTO a shot in the arm and given many hope that a brighter future lies ahead. The WTO clearly needs major reforms to recapture the role envisioned in the 1980s and early 1990s when it was being negotiated and created. Let’s hope that Dr. Ngozi will help find the path that Members will agree to pursue to return the WTO to relevance.

Below are embedded a few of the statements from yesterday of Members (U.S., EU, China, India).

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Anne Allen Hodge — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 17:27:55 +0000

Even for an economist, there are lots of very large numbers in the life of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. As the chair of Gavi, the vaccine alliance, she has overseen the annual immunisation of millions of children.When managing director of the World Bank, she oversaw $81bn (£58bn) worth of operations. In her stints in charge of Nigeria’s finances, she tackled Africa’s most populous country’s $30bn debt. And she has 1.5 million followers on Twitter.

There are lots of smaller numbers too: the 20 non-profit organisations that have appointed Okonjo-Iweala to their advisory boards, the major banks and corporations she has advised, the 10 honorary degrees in addition to her own doctorate, 20 or so awards, dozens of major reports authored, and the books.

Then there are the multiple lists frequently featuring Okonjo-Iweala, 66: the world’s 100 most powerful women, 100 most influential people in the world, 10 most influential women in Africa, Top 100 or 150 women in the world, and many others.

On Monday, Okonjo-Iweala was added to a new list: that of the director generals of the World Trade Organization (WTO), a position that has never before been occupied by an African person nor by a woman. She will take over the institution, with its budget of $220m and staff of 650, at a critical time.

It will be the moment to put all the number-crunching experience she has gained over a 40-year career to use. The global trading system – with the WTO at its heart – is facing a make-or-break moment, say experts. But can Okonjo-Iweala fix it?

Okonjo-Iweala was six when Nigeria gained its independence from Britain in 1960. She grew up in a small village in the country’s southern Delta State. Her parents, both distinguished academics, were studying in Europe on scholarships, so she and her six siblings were raised by a grandmother. Life was not easy. By the time she was nine, Okonjo-Iweala had learned to cook, fetch wood and manage many of the household tasks.

The civil war pitting the separatist Biafra state against the Nigerian central government disrupted her education and exposed her to further hardship. “I was eating one meal a day and children were dying. So, I learned to live very frugally. I often say I can sleep on a mud floor as well as a feathered bed and be very comfortable. It has made me someone who can do without things in life because of what we went through,” Okonjo-Iweala told Forbes magazine last year.

When her three-year-old sister became chronically ill with malaria, it was Okonjo-Iweala who carried her for three miles to the doctor’s surgery, pushing through a crowd of 600 and climbing through a window to get the treatment that saved the child’s life.

At the end of the war, Okonjo-Iweala went to the US to study economics at Harvard and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), married her childhood sweetheart and, at the age of 25, began working for the World Bank, rising steadily up the institution’s hierarchy, travelling widely, and only leaving when invited to be finance minister of Nigeria in 2003.

The appointment plunged Okonjo-Iweala into a no-holds barred battle to force through economic reforms. “When I became finance minister they called me Okonjo-Wahala – or Trouble Woman,” she told the Guardian in 2005. “It means: ‘I give you hell.’ But I don’t care what names they call me. I’m a fighter; I’m very focused on what I’m doing, and relentless in what I want to achieve, almost to a fault. If you get in my way you get kicked.”

She tackled Nigeria’s huge debt by convincing sceptical western powers to grant relief. Gordon Brown called her “a brilliant reformer”, though others were less appreciative of the deal she did with creditors. Some commentators point out that many of the promises she made to Nigerians of economic growth and job creation went unfulfilled.

“She can be really firm and bold, maybe scary to some people, but at the same time she’s still her[self]. A woman who makes us laugh. She has jokes,” said Ada Osakwe, an economist who worked with Okonjo-Iweala in government.

Now that the US elections have removed the opposition of the Trump administration to her appointment, it will be the WTO that she will run. This is a far more exposed and far more influential position than any Okonjo-Iweala has held before.

The Geneva-based organisation has faced bitter criticism from all quarters for decades. It was the primary target of a movement protesting against the more nefarious consequences of the form of capitalism and process of globalisation it promotes, while more recently it has been attacked by the US for failing to tackle the challenge posed by China’s model of state capitalism.

Poorer nations in the global south have long protested against the advantages they say it has given the developed world, and their relative lack of influence over decision-making compared with richer states. Agricultural subsidies have been a particular point of contention. The organisation has not sealed a major multilateral trade deal in years, and hopes that it could somehow curtail overfishing or help manage the commercial wild west that is e-commerce have been dashed.

The Covid-19 pandemic, with struggling economies and growing protectionism worldwide, poses further challenges.

“The WTO needs … a fresh look, a fresh face, an outsider, someone with the capability to implement reforms and to work with members to make sure the WTO comes out of the partial paralysis that it’s in,” Okonjo-Iweala said in an interview with CNN.

Osakwe, the economist, said the appointment was a “big deal for Africa and it’s a big deal for the world”. “Having such a remarkably accomplished woman take the helm of an institution that needs some level of a shake-up, given everything that’s happening with trade in the world, the fights between the US and China. She has been in the trenches,” she said.

Last week Okonjo-Iweala told her Twitter followers that she was looking forward to “finalising the process of WTO’s DG”. “There is vital work ahead to do together,” she said.

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Anne Allen Hodge — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 16:42:05 +0000

Via communications sent out to the WTO membership on Tuesday, February 9, 2021, there will be a special General Council meeting next Monday, February 15, to consider the recommendation by the Chairman of the General Council, Amb. David Walker (NZ) that Members appoint Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as Director-General of the WTO. the notices follow the withdrawal of the South Korean candidate, Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee last Friday and the press release from the United States Trade Representative’s Office last Friday that the U.S. strongly supported the candidacy of Dr. Okonjo-Iweala. As other Members appeared to be on board with a consensus behind Dr. Okonjo-Iweala following the third round of consultations last October, movement by the Republic of Korea and the United States were the remaining steps for the Chairman of the General Council to be able to move forward with making his recommendation (supported by his facilitators) to the membership in a special General Council meeting. It is believed that Amb. Walker has been doing outreach to other Members since those announcements to confirm consensus and address any other issues relevant to the appointment of the next Director-General. So after the General-Council meeting next Monday, the WTO should finally have a new Director-General. The four Deputies Director-General have been jointly carrying on since the last Director-General departed at the end of August last year.

The two documents sent out today are embedded below.

Terence Stewart, former Managing Partner, Law Offices of Stewart and Stewart, and author of the blog, bodog poker review|Most Popular_Congressional

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