In July 2024, WIDE+ organised a panel at the IAFFE (International Association of Feminist Economics) conference in Rome under the following title: Trade policies in the context of macro-economic policy making: feminist reflections on resistance and alternatives.
Panel presenters included:
- Edmé Dominguez, emeritus Associate Professor in Peace and Development Studies at the School of Global Studies, Gothenburg University, Sweden, WIDE+ representative in the EU Domestic Advisory Groups with American countries, GADIP board member and part of different global civil society alliances.
- Gea Meijers, WIDE+ General Coordinator and member of the Gender and Trade Working Group.
- Mirela Arqimandriti, director of GADC in Albania, and member of the Western Balkan Gender Budgeting Group among others.
- Patricia Munoz Cabrera, independent researcher and consultant involved in evaluating policies of governments including the EU, and WIDE+ member.
- Christa Wichterich, independent writer, researcher, WIDE+ member, active in many alliances.
With this IAFFE conference being in Europe, the Gender and Trade working group wanted to focus on how EU trade policy relates to other macro-economic policies as a case study for other regions. It wants to highlight feminist reflections on global resistance and alternatives. The EU trade policy includes gender as a reference point, but in fact remains blind to gender equality impacts, an issue the working group has analyzed in depth. Its work shows how political-economic interests to promote an EU towards more ‘strategic autonomy’ that are embedded in neocolonial economic approaches interact with institutional values of anti-discrimination and gender equality promoted for example in EU’s internal market.
More specifically, this event:
- Explained the development of (a lack/limitation of) gender equality and human rights impacts in EU trade policy in the context of other macroeconomic policies, in particular by International Monetary Institutions.
- Highlight contractions in current key policy areas, in particular regarding the EU policies around digitaledization of economies and the adoption of feminist foreign policies.
- Made visible and strategize around feminist alternatives and modes of resistance and reflect on improving strategies for future action. Such feminist alternatives and visions are rooted in an intersectional, decolonial and transformative feminism.
You can download each speaker’s presentation in the links below:
Gea Meijers: Intersectional Discrimination, Algorithmic hiring and Trade
Edmé Dominguez: Gender and Trade: the example of EU’s agreements with Mexico and Central America
Patricia Munoz: The EU-Chile Trade Agreement (AFA), extractivism and human rights
Christa Wichterich: Trade policies in the context of macro-economic policy making: feminist reflections on resistance and alternatives and PowerPoint presentation on Trade in Health Care Labour – Global Care Chains