Gender and Trade

ICFTU – Geneva Office

Elements of Globalization

Trade liberalization Deregulation Privatization Structural adjustment

Gender inequality

Three layers responsible for gender inequality:

1. Social aspects

2. Availability of empowering tools

3. Status of women in the workplace

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

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

Status of women in the workplace

The status is influenced by the other two

groups of factors, leading to:

1. Lower labour market participation

2. Lower quality of employment

3. Job segregation

4. Discrimination

5. Wage inequalities

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

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

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

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

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)

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

manufacturing

Characteristics of work in EPZs:1. Low-skilled work2. High pace3. Restricted breaks and toilet visits4. Often forced overtime work5. Trade unions not allowed6. Poor working and living conditions7. Harassment, including sexual harassment8. High labour turnover9. No training

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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