Putting Women at the Heart of Post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery: How Trade Agreements Can Help
Dr. Amrita Bahri is Assistant Professor of Law, ITAM and Co-Chair Professor, WTO Chair Program, Mexico.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
Economic empowerment comes with unfettered access to economic opportunities and resources. For women, various barriers impede this form of empowerment. These barriers can include: 1) Lack of access to educational opportunities that can translate to high paid job opportunities for women; 2) Digital divide between men and women, caused by lack of affordability and digital know-how; 3) Lack of access to productive resources such as land, finances and other assets; 4) Disproportionately high tariff and non-tariff barriers faced by women-owned businesses engaged in foreign trade; 5) Laws and cultural norms restricting mobility, employment and business opportunities for women.
The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating the impact of these pre-existing barriers in various ways. Owing to this pandemic, women in formal and informal economies are losing their jobs; they are facing heightened barriers in accessing online educational opportunities; their access to health services and medical establishments is curtailed; they have faced a massive increase in household responsibilities; and with some women facing lockdowns with their abusive family members, domestic violence against women has also risen. These factors indicate how limited gains made in respect of gender equality are now at serious risk of being rolled back.
There are two different approaches to mitigating this challenge: a bottom-up or a top-down approach. Countries can either directly try to change national laws, culture, and social norms at the domestic level, or they can use international law to create incentives to bring about this change. International trade law and policies can form part of the “top-down” approach, as they can contribute to the economic empowerment of women by incentivizing countries to mitigate the above-mentioned barriers. This crisis presents a unique opportunity to explore how trade policies, including the pursuit of free trade agreements (FTAs), can contribute to women’s empowerment and hence place women at the heart of economic recovery in the post-COVID-19 world.
Mainstreaming gender in FTAs
One way countries can work towards empowering women is through mainstreaming gender equality provisions in FTAs; through these provisions, countries can encourage their trading partners to develop laws and procedures that can reduce barriers that impede women’s access to trade and commerce. There are several existing trade agreements wherein parties have committed to reducing such barriers, and several of these commitments can tackle the rising challenges women are currently facing, such as restricted access to health services, education, digital know-how, and rising violence and discrimination.
For example, parties to the East African Community undertook a commitment to increase women’s representation in decision-making roles by ensuring gender balance in legislative assemblies. The Canada-Israel FTA provides an example wherein countries have shown their willingness to enhance women’s access to finance, business opportunities and technology. In the Central America-European Union Association Agreement, parties have endeavored to increase women’s access to health services and reduce or eliminate violence against women.
The Canada-Chile FTA is also a leading example of how FTAs can include commitments on increasing women’s access to education, digital know-how and skill development. Parties to this agreement also seek to create encouraging conditions for women entrepreneurs; if put to action, such a commitment might help businesswomen in the post pandemic economic recovery, for example, by pushing for the creation of business networks and improved infrastructure in relevant sectors and industries.
The Eurasian Economic Union contains a provision that obligates employers in member countries to provide mandatory health insurance for migrant pregnant women and mothers, and for women employed in high risk jobs. In the Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement, members provide for an exemption to allow for the adoption of women-favouring government procurement schemes. As I explain in a recent article, these innovations to consider gender equality concerns in trade agreements could have a profound impact on women’s involvement in global trade. The provisions in existing agreements may also help tackle pandemic-inflicted losses and allow women to realize their full potential, socially and economically.
Challenges to making gender provisions work
Though there is no shortage of enthusiasm in finding ways to make trade more inclusive for women, there are serious challenges faced in translating these sentiments into concrete policy outcomes. In particular, there are three fundamental problems in putting these gender-responsive provisions found in existing FTAs to action: 1) most of these provisions cannot be enforced as they are drafted as “best endeavor” promises; 2) almost all trade agreements include gender-related commitments without mobilizing resources to finance their implementation; and 3) with the exception of very few agreements (such as Canada-Israel and Canada-Chile FTAs), most of the agreements do not provide for any institution or procedure to implement these commitments. Without creating institutions to implement or oversee the implementation of these provisions, resources to finance their implementation, and an enforcement mechanism, it is difficult to see how they might actually work to improve the lives of women post pandemic. So what can we do to ensure that trade agreements can mitigate the harm this pandemic is inflicting on women?
One of the most powerful ways to bring about change is to build awareness. Several recent studies have attempted to raise awareness among policymakers of the economic benefits from women’s empowerment in trade and commerce. For example, Mckinsey Global Institute has showcased gender equality as a business case, and finds that if women play an equal role in labor markets to that of men, global gross domestic product (GDP) will increase by 26 percent in 2025. Studies commissioned by the OECD, UN Women, and the World Bank have strengthened this business case even further. These studies can be useful in building countries’ awareness on how gender equality and trade are related as they clearly show that neither international trade nor gender equality is a zero-sum game. Everyone benefits from making trade fair and inclusive.
The next step is to make policymakers aware of how they can negotiate and draft gender-responsive trade agreements. This is where the need to have a toolkit comes in; a toolkit that can guide trade negotiators on how they can negotiate and draft gender-responsive trade agreements. In 2020, I worked with the International Trade Centre (ITC) to prepare the first-ever toolkit that can help negotiators gauge the gender responsiveness of their trade agreements. The figure below shows how this ITC toolkit is organized.
Figure 1: ITC's Toolkit to Measure FTA's Gender Responsiveness
Source: Diagram adapted from ITC, Mainstreaming Gender in Free Trade Agreements, Figure 1.
The framework is based on 10 dimensions, from which the gender components of a given agreement can be assessed. Overall, there are 20 questions to be answered from these 10 dimensions, and all questions have three possible answers. The 20 questions focus on the text of the trade agreement, as they relate to the nature, scope, location and kind of gender-related provisions included in FTAs. Some questions address implementation, enforcement and finance issues as well.
Trade negotiators, policymakers or researchers looking to assess particular trade agreements, can answer these 20 questions to receive a maturity score and level of gender-responsiveness for that agreement (characterised as either limited, evolving, or advanced). The toolkit also provides useful guidelines on how countries can enforce, implement and finance gender equality considerations they add in their FTAs. Trade negotiators and policymakers should give this unique toolkit a try to move a step closer to making future trade negotiations work for women’s empowerment in the post-pandemic world. They can also employ this toolkit in modernization talks for existing trade agreements to enhance their potential to engage and empower women.
With the present day discussions and scholarly works on trade and gender, the battle against gender inequality has made great strides. We need to keep these discussions going to win this battle against gender inequality. The momentum is on. We have to tap into this momentum by continuing discussions and scholarly interventions in this respect. The world economy will suffer even more if women – who account for one half of the world’s working-age population – are further excluded from the economy and hence impeded from contributing to economic growth and the post-COVID-19 economic recovery. Ongoing discussions can ensure that future trade policies recognize this and include women at the heart of the COVID-19 response.
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