INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW ASSIGNMENT

- VARSHA S.PILLAI
15BLB1044

TRADE AS A DRIVING FORCE OF WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT: A

WTO PERSPECTIVE.

ABSTRACT
The WTO from the time of its establishment has allegedly exercised a ‘neutral’ regulation
policy, indifferent to gender, justified on grounds of desired equality. However, this ‘neutral
approach has been criticised for pragmatically causing gender discrimination in certain
cases and reinforcing it in others. The joint declaration on Trade and Women’s economic
Empowerment at the Buenos Aires ministerial conference in 2017 was introduced altering
the yester year stand of WTO in the issue, it was immediately celebrated and derided in equal
measure. While 121 WTO members and observers agreed to support the declaration , which
sought to remove barriers to, and foster women’s economic empowerment, others viewed it
as a ‘pink herring’- a ploy to mask the failures of WTO and its role in deepening the
inequality and exploitation, without actually modifying its rules or operations. Third- world
countries like India, opposed the declaration sternly, fearing the use of high standards of
gender equality by the developed countries as a method to curb exports from the developing
countries and also referred to ‘gender equality’ a non-trade related subject.
The 2017 declaration is also part of WTO’s contribution to the United Nation Agenda for
Sustainable Development (Goal 5 on achieving gender equality and empowering women and
girls). This article along with exploring the possible effects of the declaration in identifying,
tackling the barriers and advancing the economic empowerment of women, analyses the
reality pertaining to the declaration with reference to previous WTO policies, and helps in
understanding the ramifications of WTO policies on gender equality and women
empowerment.
 REFERENCES
 Frohmann, Alicia, Gender Equality and Trade Policy (December 2017). SECO/WTI
Academic Cooperation Project Working Paper Series 2017/24 . Available at
SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3113197 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3113197

 Sheila Kiratu & Suryapratim Roy, The Gender Implications of Trade Liberalization in
Southern Africa Iisd.org (2010),
https://iisd.org/sites/default/files/publications/beyond_barriers_gender_south_africa.pdf
(last visited Sep 2, 2019).
 Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk (2019),
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_
data/file/803583/Gender-Inclusion-Trade-Brief.pdf (last visited Sep 2, 2019).
 WTO | 2017 News items - Buenos Aires Declaration on women and trade outlines actions
to empower women, Wto.org (2017),
https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news17_e/mc11_12dec17_e.htm (last visited Sep 2,
2019).
 https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/womenandtrade_e/womenandtrade_e.htm
 GENDER AWARE TRADE POLICY-
https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/a4t_e/gr17_e/genderbrochuregr17_e.pdf