Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender

The Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender brings together WTO members and observers seeking to intensify efforts to increase women's participation in global trade. It was established on 23 September 2020 as a follow-up to an initiative launched at the Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires in 2017, known as the Joint Declaration on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment.

The Group aims to share best practice on removing barriers to women's participation in world trade, to exchange views on how to apply a “gender lens” to the work of the WTO, to review gender-related reports produced by the WTO Secretariat, and to discuss how women may benefit from the Aid for Trade initiative.

Participation in this Informal Working Group is open to all WTO members. The initiative is chaired by Botswana, Iceland and El Salvador.

News

Background

In the margins of the WTO's 11th Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires in 2017, 118 WTO members and observers endorsed the informal Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment. This initiative seeks to foster women’s economic empowerment through their participation in international trade, by focussing on experience and best practices sharing and workshop discussions. Since 2019, 120 WTO members and 7 observer governments support the Buenos Aires Declaration.

More on the Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment

On 23 September 2020, the Buenos Aires participants created the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender (WT/L/1095/Rev.1) in the WTO, the ultimate outcome of the Buenos Aires Declaration.

The first objective of the Informal Working Group included crafting and adopting a new Declaration on trade and gender at the WTO 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12). On 1 December 2021, the "Joint Ministerial Declaration on Gender Equality and Women's Economic Empowerment within Trade" was published (WT/MIN(21)/4/Rev.1) and is currently supported by 121 WTO Members.

The MC12 Declaration is the first formal Declaration on trade and gender equality in the WTO. This Declaration gives members a clear mandate to act in four key areas, that are instrumental to move gender equality in trade forward. The MC12 Declaration also establishes for the first time a formal process to report back annually in the General Council and at the WTO 13th Ministerial Conference. Through this process, the MC12 Declaration further institutionalises gender issues in the WTO. It will be adopted at MC12 in 2022.

More on the Joint Ministerial Declaration on Gender Equality and Women's Economic Empowerment within Trade

Work of the Informal Working Group

The Working Group’s Work Plan is based on four pillars:

sharing best practices and exchanging views on removing trade-related barriers to women's participation in trade
considering the scope for a “gender lens” to be applied to the work of the WTO
reviewing analytical work undertaken by the WTO Secretariat
contributing to the Aid for Trade work programme as a means of increasing women's participation in trade.

Meetings on the four pillars were completed in July 2021. Since then, members have focused on developing an MC12 outcome document on trade and gender. Nineteen WTO members, four international organisations and the WTO Secretariat have formed the “Friends of Gender Group" to work towards a draft outcome document for the 12th Ministerial Conference.

Documents submitted by WTO members

Date	Member	Title	Document number
13 April 2022	Botswana, El Salvador and Iceland	Draft schedule of meetings for 2022	INF/TGE/W/4/Rev.1
6 December 2021	The Russian Federation	Communication from the Russian Federation on joint ministerial declaration on the advancement of gender equality and women's economic empowerment within trade	INF/TGE/COM/3
22 October 2021	Mexico	Mexico's recent work on trade and gender	INF/TGE/COM/2
14 October 2021	Botswana, El Salvador, Iceland	Draft schedule of meetings for 2021	INF/TGE/W/2/Rev.3
30 April 2021	Botswana, El Salvador, Iceland	Proposal for a framework to deliver an ambitious ministerial outcome on trade and gender for MC12 and beyond	INF/TGE/W/3
29 March 2021	Canada	Final work plan for implementing activities under the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender	INF/TGE/W/1/Rev.2
3 Feb 2021	Canada	Revision of Draft Work Plan for implementing activities under the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender	INF/TGE/W/1/Rev.1
11 Jan 2021	Australia	Australia Experiences with Gender-Related Practices and Processes	INF/TGE/COM/1
21 Dec 2020	Canada	Draft work plan for implementing activities under the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender	INF/TGE/W/1

Meetings of the Informal Working Group

Forthcoming meetings

Draft schedule of meetings — January — July 2021 (INF/TGE/W/2/Rev.2)

Date	Topic	Organizer	Documents
28 October 2021	Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender	Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador	Convening notice INF/TGE/CN/7/Rev.1
23 September 2021	Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender	Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador	Convening notice INF/TGE/CN/6
16 July 2021	Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender	Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador	Convening notice INF/TGE/CN/5/Rev.1 Presentation by WTO Secretariat Australia Korea Islamic Development Bank ITC Canada United States UNCTAD WTO Secretariat Sheela Bhide EIF and UNESCAP El Salvador Statement from WTO Secretariat China Turkey
23 June 2021	Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender	Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador	Convening notice INF/TGE/CN/4 Presentation by Canada EU Iceland New Zealand OECD Saudi Arabia
28 Apr 2021	Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender	Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador	Convening notice INF/TGE/CN/3/Rev.4 Presentation by Canada Eclac Ecuador Mauritius Turkey UNCTAD
26 Feb 2021	Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender	Iceland and Botswana	Convening notice INF/TGE/CN/2/Rev.1 Revision of Draft Work Plan for implementing activities under the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender INF/TGE/W/1/Rev.1 Draft schedule of meetings — January — July 2021 INF/TGE/W/2 Australia Experiences with Gender-Related Practices and Processes INF/TGE/COM/1 Presentation by Chile: Experience in the incorporation of trade and gender chapters in Chile's FTA
10 Dec 2020	Launch of the report: Delivering on the Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment. Other items will be discussed during this meeting.	Iceland and Botswana	Convening notice INF/TGE/CN/1 Establishment of the IWG WT/L/1095/Rev.1

Meetings

2021

23 September
16 July
23 June
28 April
26 February

2020

10 December

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