This paper reviews knowledge on how women and men may be affected differently by trade rules through their impacts on labour markets, production structures, prices and government revenues. It identifies some of the economic and political reasons for governments to negotiate RTAs, and some of the advantages and disadvantages that RTAs may present for small businesses in particular. There is growing interest in some organizations to “engender” trade discussions. The paper discusses examples from various trade agreements and recent initiatives aimed at providing trade officials with the information they need to integrate gender issues into trade negotiations. The paper identifies gender considerations in some trade issues of importance to women, including agriculture, services, government procurement, handicrafts and intellectual property, and describes trade promotion initiatives in some APEC economies that target women. The paper offers several suggestions to build knowledge and experience in APEC to ensure that trade liberalization contributes to prosperity for all.

The report aims to generate a set of recommendations to inform future trade negotiations and trade facilitation. This assignment has three components as stated in the terms of reference. They are: A gender audit of Africa's negotiating position in trade agreements (EPAs, WTO, etc.); A review of gender and trade facilitation in Africa; and The development of a generic template with policy recommendations to address the gender gaps identified in these reviews, and inform future trade negotiations and trade facilitation.

This is the first report which draws on the work submitted by the research group members across all three projects. It compares and contrasts the situation in the countries in the research, identifying key themes which emerge from the reports, locating them within a wider analysis of labour market structuring and varieties of patriarchal, racialised and diverse cultural frameworks. Statistical data and country reports were produced variously from colleagues about Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ghana, South Korea, Nigeria, Philippines, South Africa, Turkey, UK and Zimbabwe.

This paper focuses only on two aspects of the global economy that particularly illuminate women’s position and issues related to gender equality: first, global supply chains and production networks that reflect the current nature and pattern of international trade and investment; and second, the international migration of care services workers. These have an impact on labour markets and on women and men in both the South and the North, in developing and developed countries. For example, there is widespread concern in developed countries that trade with low-wage countries and labour migration are responsible for job losses and growing wage inequality in developed countries. However, this paper gives particular attention to issues in developing countries.

The first guidance note discusses why gender matters for trade facilitation. It gives examples of projects that have integrated the gender dimension and what that has meant for project outcomes. In addition, the note provides practical advice and templates on how gender can be better integrated into these types of projects. Some of the key suggestions emerging from the guidance noteâ” such as the use of gender disaggregated data” are valid for many types of projects. Other suggestions, however, are more specific to trade facilitation projects. The establishment of mechanisms to support cooperation amongst female traders in pooling goods and accessing better and cheaper logistics services serves as one such example. In this respect, this guidance note provides concrete suggestions for integrating gender dimensions into these projects without cumbersome procedures and/or resource-intensive changes to typical trade facilitation projects.