At their last meeting of the year held on Dec. 12, members of the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender of the World Trade Organization (WTO) highlighted the progress on trade and gender they made in 2022 and how they’ll take the next steps in 2023.
“Gender issues are now considered as part of the WTO's work as a whole,” WTO Co-chair Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson said in a press release. “That gives us an additional and stronger mandate in addition to the one outlined in the interim report establishing the IWG in 2020.”
The group pointed out that the work of the Informal Working Group (IWG) accelerated after the 12th Ministerial Conference outcome document, which recognizes the importance of women’s economic empowerment. Several workshops were held, including one on gender equality and the private sector and another on data collection broken down by gender. There were also four workshops on “Developing a gender lens framework for the WTO,” which focused on government procurement, e-commerce, trade facilitation and investment facilitation.
The Informal Working Group announced that 2023 should be dedicated to developing a long-term work program containing concrete actions and deadlines.
The meeting featured several presentations by speakers ranging from WTO employees to those in the private sector to academics, addressing issues related to women and digitalization, female exporters, links between free trade agreements, disability and gender.
“During the workshop, we have learned that women represent one in three growth-oriented entrepreneurs worldwide. We also learned that firms led by women export less than firms led by men because they are more challenged when it comes to navigating foreign regulations and acquiring the necessary skills to start exporting,” Ambassador Ana Patricia Benedetti Zelaya of El Salvador said. “Presenters also highlighted the role of large companies to prioritize inclusion within their supply chains and the need to improve digital trade facilitation.”
Anoush der Boghossian, head of the WTO's Trade and Gender Unit, said some of the research papers presented at the first-ever World Trade Congress on Gender held from Dec. 5 through 7 will be released in 2023, as well as a report highlighting new data and findings discussed at the event. The second World Trade Congress on Gender is slated for December 2024.