THEMATIC SESSION ON TRADE AND GENDER

TENTH TRIENNIAL REVIEW

Proposal from Brazil

The following submission, dated 28 May 2024, is being circulated at the request of the delegation of Brazil.

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1  BACKGROUND

1.1.  International trade has been recognized as a powerful driver of economic development. However, it is relevant to examine how trade affects different social groups and how it can be more inclusive, and its positive effects can be better distributed, especially to women, as their economic empowerment brings direct benefits to the overall society.

1.2.  The World Trade Organization (WTO) recognizes that trade improves the lives of women and has shown attention to this agenda.[1] An example of this occurred in the margins of the WTO's 11^th Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires in 2017, where 118 WTO Members and observers endorsed the Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment. The declaration emphasizes the importance and necessity of fostering women's economic empowerment through their participation in international trade.[2]

1.3.  Also, at the 13^th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in February 2024, the MC13 Ministerial Declaration recognizes that women's participation in trade contributes to economic growth and highlights the WTO work, including in collaboration with other relevant international organizations, in activities such as capacity-building initiatives and sharing experience to facilitate women's participation in trade.[3] Additionally, the co-Chairs of the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender released their "Joint Statement on Promoting Inclusive and Sustainable Trade Growth through Gender Equality and Building a Gender-responsive WTO".[4]

1.4.  The relation between trade and gender is a crosscutting theme, and the effects of regulatory measures, the standardization process and technical barriers on women-led business are a relevant field of research and an important topic for debate. Unfortunately, challenges such as a lack of gender-disaggregated data sources, the general absence of gender expertise into the regulatory processes and the standardization system and the necessity of improving gender representation still affect women negatively.

1.5.  Strengthening an enabling environment for women-led businesses in trade requires targeted policy interventions, including simplifying trade procedures, increasing access to information and support services, and promoting gender inclusivity. These efforts are essential for advancing women's economic empowerment and achieving sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

1.6.  Regarding technical barriers to trade, different factors can be pointed out to understand that these have more burdensome effects on businesses led by women than men. One could mention that women-led-businesses are normally smaller ones making it more difficult to bear the fixed cost to meet standards and regulatory requisites.[5] Also, there is the amount of unpaid work and women time constrains to obtain the information needed regarding these requisites and the related conformity assessment procedures and the cost constrains to hire someone to do so. Finally, even in the cases that women are successful in these, they, often, suffer discrimination on the border.

1.7.  Furthermore, there is the fact that standards and regulatory requirements are mainly designed by men and, therefore, may not always consider women's specificities. It is important to note that standards and regulations are set by those who participate in their development. Therefore, they are not neutral. The International Organization of Standardization (ISO), for example, estimates the participation of women in the standards development process at 20-25%. For the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) the figure is 14% but given that the estimate is based on incomplete data it could change. While it is obvious that women are under-represented in standardization, the implications are still less clear.^[6]

1.8.  Therefore, the TBT Committee should incorporate this debate into its agenda and examine how to promote the implementation of the TBT Agreement in a sense that considers the obstacles facing by women-led-businesses, the aspects related with gender specificities and the role that standardizations and regulatory processes could play in fostering the benefits of trade for women.

2  PROPOSAL

2.1.  Brazil proposes holding a thematic session to encourage WTO Members to engage in discussions aimed at fostering gender inclusivity in trade and, specifically, in standardization and regulatory processes. By addressing the barriers and challenges faced by women-led-businesses in international trade, this session seeks to debate and explore the initiatives through the exchange of information and experiences, also including successful cases, among Members and International Organizations, such as ISO, IEC and others.

2.2.  Topics and areas of focus could include:

a._         Examining how trade policies, specifically in their implementation through topics related to the TBT Agreement, can be designed and implemented to support women entrepreneurs and workers.

b._         Developing strategies for collecting gender-disaggregated data to better understand the impacts of trade and, specifically, of standardization and regulatory processes on women.

c._              Identifying best practices and policies to increase women's representation in the development of international standards and regulatory processes.

d._              Sharing experiences and lessons learned from Members and International Organizations that have successfully integrated gender considerations into trade standardization frameworks and regulatory processes.

e._              Establishing mechanisms to monitor and evaluate the progress of gender inclusivity initiatives in trade, standardization and regulatory processes.

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