• Trade and gender
• Impact of trade liberalisation
• Gender-sensitive trade policy
• Women's employment

Trade and gender

There is a need to increase understanding of the relationship between gender and trade, to provide a space for critical reflection and debate on the opportunities, challenges, strategies and the different policy options relating to trade liberalisation with a gender focus. This report is the result of an intensive one-day consultation between representatives of civil society organisations, academics, researchers, NGO activists and representatives of the European Commission, Directorate-General (DG) Trade and the private sector. The EU’s attention has increasingly shifted towards concluding a new generation of comprehensive and competitiveness-driven bilateral and regional free trade agreements with key partners. It sets as one of its main objectives the opening of new markets for EU companies by targeting developing countries’ overall regulatory environment, despite the acknowledged problems this will cause to the own development efforts of poorer countries.

The consultation analysed these objectives in relation to development, poverty eradication and its impact on women’s rights, entitlements and livelihoods. Each area discussed in the consultation was in relation to the current trade negotiations in Asia, the Middle East, Ukraine and Central America. The presentations, discussions and fact sheets provide an overview of the processes and a gender analysis of the potential impact in different geographical regions. Interestingly, although the negotiations are at different stages in these regions the case studies indicate many similarities in relation to the potential impact on women of free trade agreements.


The speakers identified a number of concerns that need to be addressed. These include:

• trade and investment policies between unequal negotiating partners
• policies that threaten the policy space of governments to define their own development priorities and policies
• polices aimed at liberalisation and the privatisation of public services that subordinate essential public services to the profit interest
• policies that destroy food security and food sovereignty of the people in developing regions and which are a threat to people’s survival
• policies that are a threat to basic human and women’s rights and prevent the implementation
  of global social rights

The consultation led to specific demands being identified to transform EU external relations policies into a development agenda that is sustainable and just. These recommendations can be found in this report.

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