Disrupting the Gender Digital Divide: What Role for International Trade Policy?

Digital technologies offer women new opportunities to participate in international trade. Increasing offshoring, servicification and digitalisation in global value chains have enabled some developing countries to supply goods and services to businesses and final consumers. In theory, e-commerce offers women a number of advantages: lower transaction costs, access to larger or new markets, secure payment options and, arguably, faster productivity and output growth. For women to seize these opportunities, however, a number of things need to happen, from supportive domestic policies to innovative trade and trade-related policies.

This session will explore the opportunities to design and implement international trade policy to support women in e-commerce, by discussing evidence-based analysis of the key regulatory constraints to women participation in e-commerce, potential solutions through WTO and RTAs, regional experiences, and trade negotiators’ perspectives.

Panellists:

• Patrice Braun, Professor, Research & Innovation, Federation University Australia
• Amalie Giødesen Thystrup, University of Copenhagen/Columbia Law School/Graduate Institute
• Richard Kamajugo, Senior Director, Trade Environment, TradeMark East Africa
• Frances Lisson, Australia Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO

Moderator:

• Andrew Crosby, Managing Director, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD)