TRADE AS A VEHICLE OF SOCIAL PROGRESS: THE GENDER PERSPECTIVE
TRADE AS A VEHICLE OF SOCIAL PROGRESS: THE GENDER PERSPECTIVE Annual session of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO on the theme of ‘What future for the WTO?’ held in Geneva, Switzerland.
Hon. Dr Dato’ Noraini Ahmad, MP is the
Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) Chairperson since December 2016. A Member of the Federal Parliament of Malaysia and Chair of the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE), she was elected to Parliament in 2008. In 2013, she was announced as the first female chair of MATRADE, the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation, whilst also being appointed to the board of the advisory committee to the Malaysian AntiCorruption Agency.
Let me start by putting things in perspective: • Over one billion women live in the Commonwealth and women’s’ businesses contributed over 20% of world trade. • Women as Entrepreneurs: Across developing countries, it is estimated that almost 37% (around 8 to 10 million) females own SMEs (Small to Medium Enterprises). These firms represent a significant share of global employment. • Women as Employees: Women make up 40% of the global workforce today. Many of the sectors that are critical for economic growth in some of poorest countries rely heavily on women employees. • Women as Consumers: The financial power of women is expanding at its fastest rate compared to any other time, centred in emerging economies. Female global consumer spending accounted for USD $28 trillion in 2014. • Women as Stakeholders: Women take on leading roles in their communities as partner of business and government.
144 | The Parliamentarian | 2017: Issue Two
Gender is a key factor in the complex relationship between trade, growth and development – and yet there is a widespread assumption that trade policies and agreements are class, race and gender neutral. This points to the crucial need to ensure that trade liberalisation does not undermine women’s rights and poor people’s livelihoods, and supports the gender equality agenda. First and foremost, this requires the explicit recognition of women’s contribution to the economy through both their productive and their unpaid reproductive work. Trade as an activity of economic exchange has a long history that far precedes its regulation within World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that we see today. Trade liberalisation entails the reduction of barriers to trade, such as import tariffs, in order to promote international trade and competition. While the conventional wisdom simply assumed that trade liberalisation was itself the key factor that would automatically ensure the growth and development of poor countries, there is an emerging consensus that trade
“Analysis of the gendered impacts of trade agreements underscores the critical links between trade and both the production and reproduction spheres. Moreover, as trade has an impact on gender equality, underlying gender inequality may have a decisive impact on the outcomes of trade policies by limiting productivity, output and growth.”