Barbados and other CARICOM countries must shift from rhetoric to transformative policies that work for women, including removing the barriers now preventing them from fully accessing trade-related opportunities.
That is the assessment of Dr Jan Yves Remy, director of the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy and Services, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, and Tonni Brodber, representative for the UN Women Multi-Country Office-Caribbean.
As Barbados and the world commemorates International Women’s Day today, Remy and Brodber stressed there was a need to integrate gender and trade policy.
“Despite increasing recognition globally of the interlinkages between trade and gender, and the role that trade can play in advancing women’s empowerment, CARICOM member states have not demonstrated a clear understanding of the differentiated impact on women who encounter the trade space as producers, traders and consumers; nor have they adequately and sufficiently mainstreamed gender provisions into their trade agreements to date,” they said. (SC)
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