Gender mainstreaming in EU trade agreements

Summary:

International trade is not gender neutral. Both inside and outside Europe, trade liberalisation has gender differentiated impacts, stemming from women and men's unequal access to resources and their different positions on labour markets, in households and in society. The challenge for EU policy makers is therefore to ensure that both women and men in the EU and partner countries enjoy gains from trade agreements and are protected from negative impacts and, more broadly, that EU trade policy contributes to promoting gender equality, one of the EU's core values. The EU has committed to promoting gender equality in all its policies and has established specific mechanisms in its trade policy to enforce women's labour and human rights. Under the current Commission, there has been a shift towards more explicit inclusion of gender in EU trade policy and trade agreements, illustrated in the inclusion in recent agreements of the first dedicated articles and chapter on trade and gender equality. Sustainable impact assessments and ex post evaluations, with guidelines for taking gendered effects into account, are seen as positive means of informing trade negotiations and assessing impacts of trade agreements. Nonetheless, experts and civil society have identified a number of challenges and potential areas for improvement, not least the need for better data. The European Parliament has asked for gender mainstreaming in EU trade agreements to be reinforced, calling for gender issues to be taken into account throughout the texts and during negotiations. Parliament is particularly keen for all trade agreements to include dedicated chapters on gender equality and women's empowerment, with binding and enforceable gender provisions and provisions for proper monitoring and compliance. It has also called for comprehensive ex ante and ex post gender analysis of potential and actual impacts, and for gender balanced representation and gender expertise on trade negotiating teams and the bodies established to advise on, monitor and assess the implementation of trade agreements.

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