Indeed, many government officials and NGO leaders alike do not perceive trade to be an issue that impacts women. It is often very difficult to know how a trade agreement will affect women's lives before it is passed. When EDGE has approached the United States trade negotiators, they have asked us, how they might conduct such an assessment. This project will help answer that question. The model impact statement will coalesce the best thinking of feminist economists, development practitioners, and gender and trade specialists to ensure that impact reviews include critical concepts and measures that will reflect the ways women are affected by trade liberalization.
Organizations can endorse and get invovled in the Women's Impact Statement Project.
The WTO was established in 1995 following a round of trade negotiations in Uruguay that set up broad new rules for a range of trade issues. The gender chapter will explore how trade affects women differently than men and the key priorities women would like to see reflected in the final trade agreement. ART works closely with the Hemispheric Social Alliance, a network of citizens coalitions and labor organizations working to increase transparency of FTAA negotiations, to raise public awareness of the potential effects of such an accord and to continue to promote alternative proposals. Women's EDGE Letter to the United States Trade Representative on non-governmental organizations role in trade policy discussions. Women's EDGE is working with the Rockefeller Foundation on their Exploration of Women and Work in the Global Economy .