Glass Barriers duty goods. They would put an end to what seems to be statistical discrimination: targeting women because women tend to trade specific types of goods.<sup>35</sup> Training border officials to identify gender-biased challenges and sources of discrimination could also go a long way towards improving women’s access to cross-border trade. Women are strikingly underrepresented among officials, in particular in Cambodia, and do not have representatives to voice their concerns. Regular trade facilitation audits, with a specific focus on small-scale trade and gender issues, could be readily implemented and help improve female traders’ lot before female officials are recruited and trained.

A Charter for Cross-Border Traders and Brokers reminding all parties in small-scale cross-border trade—authorities on both sides of the border, small-scale cross-border traders and brokers, and transporters—of their rights and duties could be instrumental in improving border crossing conditions. The Charter, the exact contents of which should be discussed with stakeholders, would list the authorities allowed to operate at border checkpoints, which authorities are allowed to collect taxes and fees and which are not. The Charter would also state rules of conduct, including no discrimination in tax rates by gender and no verbal or physical violence. Its main benefits would be to enhance the bargaining power of the most vulnerable categories of border users and raise the low level of knowledge of cross-border trade rules and regulations that characterizes SSCBTers. The conception of the Charter could benefit from experience from the World Bank’s initiative currently piloted at the Mwami/Mchinji crossing between Malawi and Zambia (World Bank 2014b). As in southern Africa, the Charter would be displayed at strategic locations, translated in local languages and disseminated to stakeholder groups.

Finally, the existing tax schedule creates a disincentive effect for women and such a tax wedge should be smoothed. Women enjoy a preferential treatment when working as brokers, a less remunerative and more physically demanding activity. Such discounts may be justified as smallscale cross-border brokering is considered a less suitable activity for women and customers are reportedly reluctant to rely on their services. On the other hand, the combination of discounts for female brokers and higher tax rates on female than male traders is tantamount to double jeopardy for female traders: Their margins are reduced and female brokers who would be willing to upgrade to own-account trading or non-traders who would like to enter SSCBT—“hippos” tempted to settle in the “Sahara”—face a deterring tax wedge that hinders their ambitions.

# References

Cambodia Development Resource Institute. "Cambodia's Cross Border Economy: An Exploratory Study." Working Paper 32 by K.A.S. Murshid and Tuot Sokphally, Phnom Penh, 2005.

Cambodia Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. _Agricultural Market Information:_ _Gender Roles in Agricultural Marketing._ n.d.

http://www.agriculturalmarketinformation.org.kh/en/information-resources/gender (accessed June 6, 2014).

EMC. _Time Release Study 2012 Lao PDR._ Vientiane: Emerging Markets Consulting, Ltd., 2012.

> 35 We nevertheless acknowledge that this fairer approach would come at a cost for border authorities if they need to assess the type of goods first and then randomly decide whether to control further the contents of a shipment. One way around this issue would be to apply the same control probability to all shipments and vary penalties instead.

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