At the December 2017 World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires, 121 WTO members joined forces to sign the Declaration on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment. Signatories agreed to work together to develop best practices on how to apply gender-based analysis to domestic economic policy and international trade policy to encourage female entrepreneurship and financial inclusion, remove barriers to women's participation in trade, and develop useful gender statistics and research. In this series of commentaries, experts in trade, development and women's rights explore opportunities and challenges in realizing the declaration's goal of economic empowerment of women through inclusion in domestic and international trade.
Read more than 20 blogs by international trade experts on women's economic empowerment:
- Reuniting Trade and Human Rights, by Oonagh Fitzgerald, director of CIGI’s International Law Research Program
- Even amid Protectionism, Buenos Aires Gave Women Momentum, by Susana Malcorra, former minister of foreign affairs of Argentina and minister advisor to the president until December 2017, presiding over the eleventh WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires
- Advancing Gender Equality through Trade, by François-Philippe Champagne, minister of international trade of Canada
- When She Trades, We All Benefit, by International Gender Champion Arancha González, executive director of the International Trade Centre
- Gender Impact of Regional Integration in the East African Community, by Nursel Aydiner-Avsar, economist in the Trade, Gender and Development Programme of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
- Mainstreaming Gender in the Face of Pervasive Inequality, by Chiara Piovani, consultant in the Trade, Gender and Development Programme of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
- When It Comes to Gender Analysis, Modern Trade Agreements Are Lacking, by Diane Elson, member of the Group of Seven (G7) Gender Equality Advisory Council
- Looking to Regional Trade Agreements for Lessons on Gender Equality, by Rohini Acharya, Chief of Regional Trade Agreements at the WTO
- Declaration Signatories Must Be Held Accountable, by Patricia Goff, CIGI Senior Fellow
- The Case for Developing a Model Chapter on Gender and Trade, by Maria Panezi, research fellow with CIGI’s International Law Research Program
- Will CPTPP Offer Tangible Improvements for Women?, by Stephanie Honey, trade policy consultant and associate director of the New Zealand International Business Forum
- Toward a “Win-Win” for Gender Equality and Trade, by Arjan de Haan, International Development Research Centre's programs for employment and growth
- Women and Trade at the WTO: Pink Herring, Trojan Horse or Historic Advance?, by Balakrishnan Rajagopal, head of the International Development Group in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- Calling for Gender-responsive Policy Within the WTO, by Cherise Valles, deputy director at the Advisory Centre on World Trade Organization Law
- Transparency as a First Step for Tomorrow’s Investment Treaties, by Mona Pinchis-Paulsen, senior fellow at the California International Law Center at the UC Davis School of Law
- International Investment Arbitration Needs Equal Representation, by Meg Kinnear, secretary-general of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)
- Trade’s Impact on Women is Multifaceted, Trade Policy Should Be, Too, by Julia Seiermann, Associate Economic Affairs Officer at UNCTAD's Trade Analysis Branch
- International Trade Is at Risk of Leaving Women Behind, by Simonetta Zarrilli, Chief of Trade, Gender and Development Programme Division on International Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities (DITC) at UNCTAD
- Gender Equality in the WTO: The Need for Women Leaders, by Debra Steger, professor at the University of Ottawa
- Exploring Best Practices in Promoting Gender Parity, by Luz María de la Mora, director of WEConnect International in Mexico
- Trade Equality: Women's Economic Empowerment, by Oonagh Fitzgerald, director of CIGI’s International Law Research Program (video)
- Women Support Trade in the United Kingdom, by Anastassia Beliakova, head of trade policy at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC)
- The Unsung Women Facilitating Global Trade, by Susan Baka, founder and vice-president, international, of the Organization of Women in International Trade (OWIT) Toronto chapter