WG Gender and Trade

This thematic WG monitors EU trade policy from a feminist perspective, develops public positions and analysis on EU trade and gender issues. It also contributes to global advocacy to promote a feminist perspective in trade policy. The working group coordinates it’s participation in three of the EU Trade Domestic Advisory Groups.

The Group is a mixture of WIDE+ experts, international experts and Civil Society representatives. It welcomes non-members to join the group. The group meets mostly through zoom with an active e-list. It currently meets roughly once a month. 

You can contact WIDE+ coordinator: Gea Meijers, info@wide-network.org for more information and when you are interested to take part.

Lives of many women are impacted by the internal and external (trade) rules which the EU and other European countries have come to agreements about. They are renegotiated through new trade agreements and other economic policies (e.g. monetary and the internal market policies).

The group is working towards changing the trade policy of the EU and its member states so that women’s rights are respected. The members undertake a lot of awareness raising and alliance building but also produce briefings, public letters, lobby and speak at meetings.

Past activities: 

2025

WIDE+ representative Edmé Dominguez elected as new Chair of advisory committee to the EU-Central America Trade Agreement: https://wideplus.org/2025/12/14/16114/

Listen to a recent webinar we co-organised with WIDE Switzerland: “Collective Resistance to Trade Agreements that affect Women in Latin America in their local food systems“, 23 October, 2025

The Gender and Trade Coalition Open Letter to UNCTAD16 Quadrennial, 20-23 October 2025, Geneva.

The Gender Trade Coalition, of which the WIDE+ gender and trade working group is a steering group member, has published a letter with concerns around the mandate of the UNCTAD. You can read here the finalized statement.

Webinar recording available: Chaotic Times in Global Trade Part 2: Gendered Intersections of Trade and Militarism. This was held on 26 September and co-convened by WIDE+: The webinar can be viewed here

Unstoppable: 25 years of European Trade Justice Coalition International Conference 22-24 September 2025

22 September marked the start of the 25th anniversary conference of the European Trade Justice Coalition (ETJC), previous Seattle2Brussels (S2B). This is a European coalition of a diverse group of civil society that has been pushing back on neo-liberal trade agreements to promote an economic system that works for all people and the planet. WIDE+ was present with Edmé Dominguez, chair of the European Gender and Trade Working Group, Gea Meijers, also a member of this group, Masseni Keita and Francesca Maddii, young professionals who are supporting WIDE+ in Brussels at this moment. Read More.

In June, Edmé Dominguez, board member at WIDE+, joined the negotiations between the Central American and European Union Advisory Groups in San José, Costa Rica. On behalf of WIDE+, Edmé Dominguez negotiated the successful inclusion of #gender references into the joint declaration.

You can find the full declaration here: https://www.eesc.europa.eu/en/documents/joint-declaration/central-america-dag-joint-declaration-june-2025

Video available of the webinar: “Gender Perspectives on the EU-Mercosure Agreement”, held on 11 June 2025 and organizedby WIDE+ and Saskia Bricmont (Member of the European Parliament, Greens-EFA).

Now available: “Chaotic times in global trade: Looking from a gendered lens,” a webinar organized by the Gender and Trade Coalition and co-convenors WIDE+ (Women in Development Europe+), Regions Refocus, Third World Network, FEMNET – African Women’s Development and Communication Network, IT for Change, and Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) on 28 May, you can find the recording here ▶️ https://gendertradecoalition.org/events/chaotic-times-in-global-trade-looking-from-a-gendered-lens/

🔎 In the nearly two-hour conversation, we analyzed 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 and Latin American regional perspectives, as well as development challenges and impacts of the massive turmoil in the arena of international trade on the sectors of agriculture, intellectual property, labor, global manufacturing and value chains, digital policies, and free trade agreements in the Global South.

2024

Watch the replay videos of the webinar series held between 20 September and 15 October 2024 under the title of “The Impacts of Free Trade: Women’s Perspectives on Resistance and the Search for Alternatives.” 

Click here to read more about the webinar series and to access the replay videos.

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In July 2024, WIDE+ was part of two workshops on feminist economic literacy and gender and trade policy at the IAFFE (International Association of Feminist Economics) conference in Rome with a dedicated team of WIDE+ members and partners.

1: “Trade policies in the context of macro-economic policy making: feminist reflections on resistance and alternatives.” Further details and the full presentation by the panel speakers can be found in this article.

2: “Feminist Popular Economics Education for Organizing & Movement-Building” . Watch the replay here.

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Watch the replay of the recent webinar co-organised by WIDE+ and ActionAid (Brussels office) on YouTube, held on 29 April 2024.

This webinar gathered various voices to discuss the yet-to-be-adopted EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) through a gender lens:

🔹 Anna Hengeveld – Policy Advisor, Gender and Corporate Accountability at ActionAid Netherlands
🔹 Maelys Orellana – Corporate Accountability Campaigner at ActionAid France
🔹 Christopher Patz – Policy Officer at the European Coalition for Corporate Justice
🔹 Jan Christian Niebank – Policy Officer at the German Ministry of Labour
🔹 Nyaradzo Mutonhori – Programmes Manager at Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association

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WIDE+ presented at the first Gender Trade Coalition Members Call 2024 has been recorded and can be accessed here.

WIDE+ contributed to the latest gender and trade coalition letter to the WTO this year sharing our concerns for the Ministerial Conference 13.
WIDE+ signed the Civil Society Open Letter to Ministers on WTO Fisheries Subsidies Negotiations: You can find the letter here (English, Spanish and French).

On 29 of February the MEPs (Members of European Parliament) approved the EU-Chile Advanced Framework Agreement (AFA) and its complementing deal on trade and investment liberalisation. Alsongside numerous CSOs, WIDE+ signed the open letter calling on MEPs to vote against the AFA, and warning about the implications it will have for the environment and (indigenous) human rights in Chile. You can find the letter here.

WIDE+ signed the open letter: The time is right to finally drop EU-Mercosur Trade Deal, find the letter here.

2023

Stop the EU-Mexico and EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreements: WIDE+ co-organizer Trade Justice Events on the margins of the EU CELAC Summit. On 17 and 18 July several WIDE+ members participated online and face to face. The meetings brought many activists across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. People can re-watch the public event in the European Parliament with many testimonies from experts and activists in the ECLAC countries.

Position Paper by the EU-LAC Working Group “Latin, America, Caribbean and the EU: towards a real renewed partnership”. WIDE+ is member of the working group that published it: https://wideplus.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Position-Paper-EULAC-WG-1.pdf 

2022

2021

2020

  • WIDE+ response to non-paper by 10 EU member states around promoting gender equality through trade policy: a step back for women’s rights, November 2020, read here.
  • WIDE+ initiated a Public Letter to the European Commission to ask for support waiver in WTO for the prevention, containment & treatment of COVID-19, November 2020, read here.
  • WIDE+ and Action Aid’s contribution to the EU Trade Strategy Review, September 2020.
  • WIDE+ organized Webinar: “Feminist grassroots perspectives on trade policy”, 30 September 2020 as part of the Geneva Trade Week, available in Spanish, view here.
  • WIDE+ presented during Polis180 online Policy Kitchen on a Foreign Feminist (trade) Policy, April 2020, read here.

2019

  • New (Dutch) publication from WIDE+, WO=MEN, Action Aid and Both Ends on how through trade policy women have become a bargain deal for large transnational companies, 2019, read here.
  • WIDE+ workshop: ‘Trade, digital Economy and Women’s access to Decent work’, at the WTO Public Forum, Friday 11 October 2019, listen online.
  • WIDE+ in collaboration with others has sent a critical letter to European Union commissioner Malmström, about the conference “Trade for Her” on 30 September 2019: Read More
  • Video of Gender and Trade Strategy session at @IAFFE2019, 28 June, 2019, co-organised by WIDE+ with presentation.

WIDE+ helped organize an UN-CSW side event: “Ensuring gender just trade: challenges and ways forward”,  2019, jointly organized by UNCTAD and the Gender and Trade Coalition with the support of OWIT and WIDE+: https://wp.me/p2KSLS-TB

“Show me the rest of the agreement!” Global Feminist Alliance for Trade Justice: Gender and Trade coalition launch meeting, 2019, report by WIDE+ member Claudia Thallmayer, https://wp.me/p2KSLS-TE

2018

  • WIDE+ coordinated a Civil Society strategy meeting around the international conference organized by the WTO, the World Bank group and the Dutch Foreign Ministry “Closing the Gender Gap”, December 2018
  • WIDE+ Briefing Paper on Transforming EU Trade Policy to protect Women’s Rights (EN, DE, ES, FR) 2018, https://wp.me/p2KSLS-Pb
  • CONCORD-WIDE+ Joint Position Paper calls on the EU to move beyond voluntary gender articles in EU trade agreements, https://wp.me/p2KSLS-MA.
  • WIDE+ Gender and Trade WG drafted a briefing paper on gender in EU trade agreements for the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, finalized April 2018.
  • WIDE+ joins new call for Binding Human Rights Treaty to (transnational) companies, https://wp.me/p2KSLS-Ni

WIDE+’s WG advocacy towards European Parliament resolution Gender in EU Trade Agreements concluded with resolution accepted, March 2018. The European Parliament accepted in March 2018 with great majority the draft motion: “Gender in EU Trade Agreements”. The motion was accepted by 512 MEPS, 107 were against, and there were 68 abstentions. WIDE+ has been a strong supporter for this resolutions and was thanked yesterday in the plenary of the European Parliament by Malin Björk, one of the shadow rapporteurs of the motion, for our contributions to the work of the  rapporteurs and their team (see also the video stream).

  • A Fair Trade for Gender? an Analysis of Cocoa production in Ivory Coast, article by WG member Nema Vinkeloe: article.

2017

WIDE+ at European Parliament hearing, 11 May, 2017. WIDE+ Working Group spoke at the European Parliament Hearing organized by the FEMM and INTA committees (gender equality and international trade). To read WIDE+ contribution: WIDE_EP_INTA_FEMM2017.

Previous Years

Picture is from the European Parliament (EP) rapporteurs Björk and Forenza, when the own initiative motion “Gender in Trade Agreements”, was adopted by the EP in March 2018. WIDE+ Gender and Trade WG was very actively advocating for gender just recommendations in this report.