Gender and Trade

1. Gender and Trade ICFTU – Geneva Office

2. Elements of Globalization • Trade liberalization • Deregulation • Privatization • Structural adjustment

3. Gender inequality Three layers responsible for gender inequality: • Social aspects • Availability of empowering tools • Status of women in the workplace

4. Social aspects • Social norms determined on the basis of culture, ethnicity or religion • Societies are patriarchal in different degrees • More economic value is attributed to « male » activities • Care work is not valued in economic terms

5. Availability of empowering tools • Women have less access to education • Less access to health • Less access to business services • No right to land or access to credit in some countries • Less bargaining power

6. Status of women in the workplace The status is influenced by the other two groups of factors, leading to: • Lower labour market participation • Lower quality of employment • Job segregation • Discrimination • Wage inequalities

7. Link between gender and trade • Trade agreements tend to affect the already weak position of women in the labour market in a negative way • Trade affects the empowering tools of women (less access to education for example) • Trade contributes to job segregation and concentration of women in certain jobs • Trade can increase income inequalities between men and women

8. Introduction to trade • Trade worldwide has increased substantially over the past 20 years • Not just between developed countries but also between developed and developing countries • Developing countries that have benefited from trade are a small number of the larger ones • The majority of developing countries has not benefited of the growth in trade and many are worse off than 20 years ago

9. Introduction • Trade liberalization means the reduction of trade barriers between countries • Trade barriers can be tariffs, quotas, or technical standards • Reducing these barriers or removing them will increase the trade between countries

10. Introduction • Countries will produce those products in which they have comparative advantage • This means that they will produce what they do best, based on the assets they have (for example unskilled labour) • Continuous competition requires continuous, gradual adjustment and shift towards other products

11. Trade negotiations • Trade negotiations with the aim to reduce trade barriers, take place in the WTO, which is a multilateral institution. • The principle of most favoured nation applies (MFN) which means that a reduction in trade barriers to one country has to be given to all countries that are member of WTO • The principle of national treatment applies, which means that treatment given to domestic products or companies should also be given to foreign products or companies (for example subsidies)

12. Trade negotiations • Besides multilateral liberalization there are also bilateral and regional trade agreements (FTAs) • Examples are agreements such as Mercosur, CAFTA, NAFTA, FTAA, Andean, CARICOM, US-Chile agreement • These agreements normally are WTO plus, which means that these agreements go further in liberalization than WTO agreements • Many of them include rules on investment (with investor to state provision: company can sue government if regulations affect profits), competition, far going services liberalization and government procurement rules.

13. FTAs • Free Trade Agreements often include provisions for labour standards, in particular those with the EU and US • Many of them require the enforcement of own labour laws • Control is not always effective, and sanctions do not exist or are limited to fines

14. Impact of trade agreements on women • There are different areas in which trade liberalization impacts on women • One of the areas is agriculture • Another one is services • A third one is manufacturing • And there is the access to medication issue

15. Agriculture • Developed countries apply high tariffs and quotas to agricultural products that are of interest to developing countries, preventing access to their markets • At the same time, developed countries dump their products on the world market at low prices due to the subsidies they receive and thus pushing developing countries out of the market, because the can not produce against such a low price

16. Agriculture • Many farmers and agriculture workers have moved to urban areas, because production is no longer profitable and cheap goods from developed countries flood the market. • Many of them are women who migrate to urban areas, some ending up in prostitution, others in domestic services or in manufacturing. Others migrate to other countries

17. Agriculture • Another important role is played by the big agribusiness, multinational companies, that control production on plantations • Production in a number of commodities is dominated by a few companies • They employ many women as seasonal workers, on temporary, flexible contracts, poor working conditions, bad safety and health conditions, and which are unable to organise

18. Services • Trade liberalization in services has started 10 years ago with the GATS agreement • The General Agreement on Trade in Services aims at complete liberalization of trade in services • Services commitments can include all services, including public services

19. Services • Liberalization takes place through commitments by governments • A list of commitments shows which sectors a member wants to liberalize. Restrictions and exceptions can be listed • Once commitments are made they can not be changed • Liberalization commitments cover 4 modes of services supply

20. Services • Mode 1 is cross border supply, f.e. offshoring • Mode 2 is consumption abroad, f.e. tourism • Mode 3 is investment abroad • Mode 4 is the movement of natural persons to supply a service abroad

21. Impact on women • Access to services are important for women, for example healthcare, education, water. If not available, women are the ones who have to provide these services • This access is no longer guaranteed if public services are liberalized and if public services can no longer benefit from subsidies or preferential treatment due to the national treatment principle • In addition, services liberalization often leads to privatization. Private companies’ main objective is profits, not access for all at an affordable price

22. Impact on women • Private services in developing countries, which often just start to develop, have to compete with developed countries’ service providers, due to trade liberalization, which will drive them out of the market • Again, private companies are mainly interested in profits, and not in access for all, excluding often rural areas or specific groups, f.ex. in access to credit

23. Impact on women • Financial services liberalization will allow foreign banks to provide financial services such as loans and credits • An important consequence will be « cherry picking » Foreign banks will take the richest clients, the best personnel and will leave local banks with less resources to provide credit to the poor • Foreign banks will not provide credit to the poor or in rural areas, as these clients will not bring them any profits. This will in particular affect women

24. Migration • Shifts in production due to trade liberalization and due to dumping of agriculture products have led to unemployment in agriculture and to migration • Men migrate to urban areas and leave women behind with care for the children, work on the land, education and healthcare • Migration can lead to brain drain and brain waste

25. manufacturing • Trade liberalization has led to the creation of export processing zones • For manufacturing, but also increasingly for services (call centres) • Violations of workers’ rights, in particular freedom of association, in EPZs • The majority of workers in EPZs are women, men are only employed in higher skilled higher wage jobs in EPZs

26. manufacturing Characteristics of work in EPZs: • Low-skilled work • High pace • Restricted breaks and toilet visits • Often forced overtime work • Trade unions not allowed • Poor working and living conditions • Harassment, including sexual harassment • High labour turnover • No training

27. Recent developments • Trade in textiles is determined by a quota system. These quotas will be eliminated end 2004 • Competition in textiles will increase • Increased competiton will lead to lowering of labour standards in textiles production • Many countries will lose textiles industries, such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Indonesia, Central American countries, African countries • Many women will loose their job in these countries • No adequate adjustment measures have been prepared

28. TRIPS • Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights • Objective: protection of intellectual property rights • Protection of patents for life saving medication such as HIV/AIDS medicines • WTO decision allows for generics and for compulsory licensing • Bilateral trade agreements (US) tries to reinforce the patent rights again, thus reducing access to medication

29. Improve position of women • Change root causes: longterm process • Ensure that trade agreements do not affect the empowerment tools of women • Increase access to credit and land • Organize women • Awareness raising on trade agreements and impacts of these

30. Concrete steps • Exclude public services from GATS and other services liberalization in free trade agreements • Be careful with liberalization of financial services: access to credit and financial stability • Research, lobbying and alliance building • Alliances with trade unions in other countries.

31. Concrete steps • More need for statistics • Ask governments for impact assessments • Organize women, and reinforce position of women within trade unions • Look at best practices • Lobby governments on trade policies • Inclusion of core labour standards, including Conventions Nos. 100 and 111 in trade agreements

32. Concrete steps • Awareness campaigns on gender and trade • Booklets and training material • Mainstreaming of gender issues in trade union policies • Training courses on impact of trade for example GATS

33. Useful websites • http://www.twnside.org.sg/ • http://www.dawn.org.fj/ • http://www.genderandtrade.net/Homepage/contact.html • Gender in trade union work, FES http://library.fes.de/fulltext/iez/01107toc.htm • Gender and trade: http://www.wiram.de/gendersourcebook/cooperation/cooperation_trade.html

34. Useful websites • www.gatswatch.org • Gender impacts of CAFTA: http://www.coc.org/pdfs/coc/genderCAFTAfactsheet.pdf • Módulos Básicos para un análisis de género y comercio : http://www.generoycomercio.org/docs/arts/modulos_basicos_analisis_gyc.doc • Gender and Trade myths http://www.poptel.org.uk/women-ww/gender_trade_and_the_WTO.html#note