Session I
Trade Policy Environment
1. The topic was introduced by Shri G.K. Pillai, Special Secretary, Department of Commerce, India. He presented the current state of play in the WTO and the reasons for suspension of the current round of talks in WTO because the development concerns of developing countries (Doha Development Round) got sidelined. He explained in brief the concerns of the developing countries in the agriculture and services sector and the importance of agriculture to developing countries. He stated that while 90% of world’s farmers live in developing countries and in the case of India 60% of the rural population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood, agriculture constitutes only 10% of the world trade. In the developed countries, contribution to GDP from agriculture is miniscule, still they are not willing to remove trade distorting subsidies in agriculture. He added that the terms of Agreement on agriculture are heavily loaded against developing countries and therefore they demand that the trade distorting subsidies given by the developed world be reduced.
2. Dr. Mariama Williams presented an analytical framework of mainstreaming trade into development which includes gender equality. She stated that there are contrasting views of the role of trade in the economy and the importance of women’s and men’s contribution to growth and development and have the trade policies/negotiations have an impact on women’s and men’s role, entitlement and overall economic and social empowerment. The issues which were brought out in her presentation relate to:
• Of social development and social protection
• Social and gender equity
• Industrial development
• Employment sustainable livelihoods and working conditions
3. She stated that the current patterns of trade and trade rule making present significant challenges for gender equality objectives, which may have significant untoward effects for long-term development. The gender issues emanating from globalization and trade liberalization include :-
- Feminization of labour market
- Increase or decrease in the access to economic and social resources for women relative to men.
- Increase or decrease of unpaid work in home and community.
- Increase of tariff in Government’s budget or cuts in social programmes or increase in regressive taxes which impact women more than men.
4. She quoted the empirical evidence on gender and trade contained in different studies which shows that gender wage gap by itself is not enough to look at the occupational segregation. Micro economic empirical evidence and macro economic analysis indicates that gender inequality directly and indirectly limits economic growth, due to gender differences in economic options, incentives and productivity. The specific gender and trade issues in South Asia which have been brought out by studies are clustered around the following five areas of concerns:-
- Women’s livelihood and food security (linking Agricultural products to NAMA
- Women’s employment, income, micro enterprises, and cross broader trade in terms of industry
- Women’s care work and access to care services together with issues relating to Mode VI of GATS
- Women access to food and essential medicines (TRIPS).
- Restrictions on domestic regulations that impacts governments ability to respond to rights and development issues (linkages to S&DT, NTB, Implementation and Accession
5. She also emphasized the importance of gender in trade agreements and policies and how trade liberalizations is associated with women’s well being and empowerment and also the tensions and dilemmas arising out of trade liberalization. She has given a number of suggestions for a sustainable gender sensitive trade.
- The role of women’s and men’s location and participation in the economy and how directional shifts in trade orientation and trade reform impacts on existing gaps in men’s and women’s differential access to resources and the labor market must be a critical factor in determining the effectiveness of trade to the economy in the medium and long term.
- Good practices that will promote benefits for women from trade (liberalisation) policy must start with a trade policy that is oriented towards poverty elimination and the promotion of gender equality as explicit objectives.
- It must be centred in a gender aware model of the economy that specifically incorporates the reproductive and informal sectors of the economy.
- This means that attention must be paid to the institutional factors that affect the supply and demand for women’s labour.
6. All these point to the need for supportive policies at national and sector levels to create an enabling condition for women and men to adjust to the changing economic circumstances due to trade liberalization that would require mechanisms to promote more gender sensitive expenditure allocations.
