Chaotic times in global trade: Looking from a gendered lens
Recording available: https://gendertradecoalition.org/events/chaotic-times-in-global-trade-looking-from-a-gendered-lens/
On 28 May, the Gender and Trade Coalition, along with co-convenors WIDE+, Regions Refocus, Third World Network, FEMNET, AWID, and IT for Change, organized a webinar entitled ‘Chaotic times in global trade: Looking from a gendered lens.’
Watch the recording and lean into a discussion on the different impacts of the current chaotic situation in the international trade space from a gendered lens, with a focus on marginalized constituencies. Topics discussed included African, European and Latin American regional perspectives, as well as development challenges and impacts of the current international trade chaos on the sectors of agriculture, intellectual property, labor, global manufacturing and value chains, digital policies, and free trade agreements in the Global South.
Background
Since April, the world is seeing a massive turmoil in the arena of international trade, triggered by the launch of a set of arbitrary tariffs imposed by the world’s richest country on imports from almost 75 countries, even small island states.
At the same time, while the World Trade Organisation has been no friend of development, the certainty of a multilateral rules-based trading system is in jeopardy. Countries are rushing to sign bilateral trade agreements and competing against friends and foe in the process. Again, these trends adversely affect all Member countries but developing countries even more so.
Marginalized groups are differentially impacted even from general trade rules. But this extreme state of chaos and competition hurts them even more. This is especially true for women and other constituencies which face gender-based discriminations in their economic and social interactions every day. The way they interact with, and are impacted by, the trading system is bound to undergo serious shifts in the current scenario. The webinar intends to use a gendered lens to analyse and understand the impacts of the current global trading space.
Speakers and moderator
Moderated by Anita Nayyar, Regions Refocus
Development challenges:
- Kicking where it hurts most: Agriculture and IP issues, Ranja Sengupta, Third World Network
- Work and development in global manufacturing and value chains, Nicole Maloba, FEMNET
- The future of digital policies in the Global South, Anita Gurumurthy, IT for Change
View from the regions:
- A regional perspective from Africa, Pauline Vande-Pallen, Third World Network Africa
- European FTAs as a strategy to tackle Trump’s policies, Edme Dominguez, WIDE+
- A view from Latin America, Patricia Munoz Cabrera, WIDE+