Promoting Gender Equality in International Trade Agreements: Pioneering or Pipe Dream?

Abstract

Recently, new deep and comprehensive trade agreements started to deal with gender issues whereas old ones were mainly gender-blind. In 2021, the first gender-only Global Trade and Gender Arrangement between Canada, Chile and New Zealand was signed, but there are various other agreements which included gender provisions or gender-related provisions. The main actors in this field are Chile, Canada, the EU and its member states as well as others. It will be analysed how and why these countries and the EU took action. This will be put also in a broader context of their international engagement in other international organisations or trade agreements. This contribution will deal with four different aspects: types of agreements and main actors, types of regulations, enforcement of regulations and impact of gender provisions in trade agreements. Gender provisions can be found in different parts of the agreements, starting with general references to gender equality and its importance in the preamble, following the obligation to take gender equality into account while implementing the agreement as well as specific gender-related provisions in special gender chapters. After the explanation of the nexus of trade and gender, the different provisions will be analysed, categorized and compared. Finally, the contribution critically assesses the provisions and gives recommendations for improvement.