RE: [brics-feminist-watch] FW: {Women_Major_Group} Please Endorse - Feminist WTO Statement
Priti Darooka
Thanks Ritu,
Can we endorse as SAFA and as BRICS feminist Watch.
And as CPDE Feminist Group.
In solidarity,
Priti
Priti Darooka
Executive Director
PWESCR International
Mobile: +919910040419
Skype: pritidarooka
From: dewan ritu [mailto:dewan...@gmail.com]
Sent: 11 December 2017 14:28
To: Priti Darooka
Cc: brics-femi...@googlegroups.com; safa...@googlegroups.com;
womenescr; Monica Novillo; amal hadi; ana tallada; Carolina Carrera; Mama
Koite; Nurgul Djanaeva; Rosabel; susana tuisawau
Subject: Re: [brics-feminist-watch] FW: {Women_Major_Group} Please
Endorse - Feminist WTO Statement
endorsed
Ritu Dewan
Ritu Dewan
President, Indian Association for Women's Studies
Director
Centre for Development Research and Action
Executive Director
Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
602, New Silver Star
Prabhat Colony Road
Near Railway Bridge
Santacruz (East)
Mumbai 400055
(M):+ 91-9819814858
Phones: +91-22-26149668 / +91-22-26135098
Fax: +91 22 26100712
Skype: dewan.ritu
former Director & Professor,
Department of Economics (Autonomous)
University of Mumbai
On Mon, Dec 11, 2017 at 2:26 PM, Priti Darooka <pdar...@pwescr.org> wrote:
Fyi
Apologies for cross posting
Priti Darooka
Executive Director
PWESCR International
Mobile: +919910040419
Skype: pritidarooka
From: women_ma...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:women_ma...@googlegroups.com]
On Behalf Of Kate Lappin
Sent: 11 December 2017 11:29
To: Wmg-advocacy; Women Major Group Listserve; WMG Trade and Corp WG; wgc_ad...@googlegroups.com;
rcemtra...@googlegroups.com;
apwld-members...@googlegroups.com
Subject: {Women_Major_Group} Please Endorse - Feminist WTO Statement
*Apologies for cross posting*
Dear sisters and allies,
Today WTO member states are meeting in Argentina and attempting to introduce a number of new issues into the already problematic WTO agenda. Those 'new issues', include harmful services provisions that deepen corporate power and the inclusion of e-commerce that will limit regulation of the world's largest, tax avoiding corporations. But they are also wanting to adopt a gender declaration as a 'new issue'. We believe this declaration is a 'pink herring' ... an attempt to distract from the harm WTO had done without making any change to its rules or operations.
Please go to THIS LINK where you can read the statement and add your organisations name at the end. The statement is also below.
With thanks and solidarity, Kate
Women’s Rights Groups call on Governments to reject the WTO Declaration on Women’s Economic Empowerment.
We, women’s rights organisations and allies, call on state parties to the World Trade Organisation to refrain from adopting the proposed “Joint Declaration on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment”. We appreciate that governments are increasingly recognising the gendered impact of international trade and trade rules imposed through the WTO and preferential trade agreements. However, this declaration fails to address the adverse impact of WTO rules and instead appears to be designed to mask the failures of the WTO and its role in deepening inequality and exploitation.
The declaration takes a very narrow approach to assessing the gendered impacts of trade. Even if the benefits the WTO bestows on the richest 1% of the world’s population were evenly split between men and women, the majority of the world’s women would not benefit. Increasing access to credit and cross border trade for a few women will not benefit women’s human rights overall.
The removal of tariffs and import limits alone have been detrimental to women’s rights. Tariff reductions reduce government revenue essential for public investments in health, education, energy, water, transport and social protection. Reduced public expenditure impacts most heavily on the economically poor and particularly poorer women. Governments are increasingly replacing that revenue with regressive taxes, such as Goods and Services Taxes which have discriminatory effects. The influx of subsidised food and inputs displaces local production and the WTO has forced governments to remove valuable policy instruments that allow them to regulate the flow of imported goods in order to support local production and to provide local, pro-poor subsidies.
It is now clear, that the neo-liberal project involving austerity, privatisation, deregulation of finance, markets and corporations, and trade and investment liberalisation has had a devastating and discriminatory impact on women. Neoliberalism is sexist and is simply incapable of supporting gender-equitable and just sustainable development, no matter how it is spun.
The proposal for the WTO to deal with ‘new issues’ threatens women’s human rights even further. If governments are genuinely interested in advancing women’s human rights through just trade arrangements, they would allow for pro-poor public stockholding of food, allow any domestic regulations a state deems necessary to advance women’s human rights and the public interest, ensure that states can fully utilise intellectual property flexibilities to provide access to medicines, seeds, technologies that advance women’s human rights and refrain from entering into any bi-lateral or multi-lateral agreements that further restrict the capacity to use domestic regulations in the interests of the public in any way they deem necessary.
We do not seek a retreat to combative nationalism in the name of trade protectionism. We support multilateralism. However, multilateralism must be based on solidarity, democracy and human rights, rather than the interests of unaccountable multinational corporations or wealthy states.
--
Kate Lappin
Regional Coordinator
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)
Ph: 66 53 284 527
Mob: (66) 0930 518 861
Skype: apwldsec
APWLD: 30 years of women's rights advocacy and activism
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