This past Friday 12 December Edmé Dominguez was elected as chair to the Domestic Advisory Group (DAG) for the European Union (EU) regarding the Trade Agreement between the EU and Central American countries. The EU DAG brings together three groups of stakeholders: businesses, trade unions and employees, and thirdly civil society, to monitor the trade agreement on its commitments to labour rights, human rights, and environment-related matters. It meets with the DAGs from the partner countries at least once a year to come to a joint statement. The Central American countries involved are Panama, Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
Mrs. Dominguez reflected upon her election looking forward to the coming two and half years, the duration of her mandate: “There are many tasks and challenges coming during this period, but I hope to be able to confront them with the support of the other DAG members and the WIDE+ network members and partners”. During the meeting many insights were shared about the current trading volumes, political developments & dialogue and other exchanges between the EU and the Central American countries.
Mrs. Dominguez is a retired researcher and university teacher, who has been monitoring trade policy from a gender perspective since the 90s and who is representing the WIDE+ gender and trade Working Group. She is currently also representing WIDE+ in different Civil Society Alliances around the trade negotiations of EU-Mercosur and EU-Mexico and has done a lot to raise awareness on the need for an intersectional gender rights approach in trade policy.
This is Mrs. Dominguez second term in the DAG as a member. WIDE+ is currently also re-elected as a member to two other Domestic Advisory Groups, the DAG to the trade agreement between the EU, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, and the DAG for the EU-Canada Trade Agreement. Edmé Dominguez is also the main representative to the other DAG with Latin and Central American countries. Gea Meijers is the main representative within the EU-Canada DAG.