Gender issues getting introduced at the WTO, at the ongoing Eleventh Ministerial Conference (MC 11) here, has ruffled quite a few feathers, including India’s, as many fear it could be a ploy to introduce new issues.

Countries including India, as well as several women’s groups, have opposed a joint declaration on “Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment”, co-sponsored by Iceland and Sierra Leone.

“WTO is not a forum to discuss gender. India is very much in favour of promoting gender issues. Women have been holding prominent positions in our country. But discussions should be at the right forum at the right place,” Commerce & Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said while interacting with the media.

Identifying issues

A number of civil society organisations have already started identifying issues in the joint declaration on women empowerment, which could lead to market access in areas such as retail and public procurement.

The proposed document commits the WTO to hold a series of seminars to explore and discuss themes like the identification of barriers that limit women’s participation in trade, financial inclusion as well as access to trade financing, enhancement of women entrepreneurs’ participation in public procurement markets, and the inclusion of women-led businesses, in particular MSMEs, in value chains.

“One can easily see an attempt to bring into the WTO issues such as trade financing, global value chain and government procurement through the gender window. India needs to guard against this,” a New Delhi-based trade expert said.

Several women’s group across countries are also protesting against the draft. “We believe this declaration is a ‘pink herring’ — an attempt to distract from the harm WTO had done without making any change to its rules or operations,” said Kate Lappin from Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD).

A WTO statement framed by APWLD being endorsed by several women’s groups points out that the declaration takes a very narrow approach to assessing the gendered impacts of trade.

“Even if the benefits the WTO bestows on the richest 1 per cent of the world’s population were evenly split between men and women, the majority of the world’s women would not benefit. Increasing access to credit and cross border trade for a few women will not benefit women’s human rights overall,” the statement says.

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