WOMEN'S PERSPECTIVES

Statement by Peggy Antrobus, DAWN (Development Alternatives of Women for a New Era) Caribbean

Trade policies have different consequences for women and men because women and men differ in their access to economic resources, their social responsibilities, and in their biological make up. Thus, trade policy impacts on the economic, social, cultural and political welfare of both men and women in particular ways that concern each.

Men and women around the world have general concerns about trade agreements that place the interests of the Multinational Corporations (MNCs) before those of certain people and countries. Women also have specific concerns about the impact of these trade regimes on health, livelihood and human security. That is, of the effects of the new trade arrangements on their lives and those of the people for whose welfare they are responsible.

Examples:

- In the mounting evidence of the environmental, ecological and health consequences of heavy use of lethal pesticides, women in Asia have been campaigning against their use.

- Women in Africa have expressed special concern about the patenting of life forms.

- Women in Latin America are especially fearful of the loss of their sources of traditional medicines and livelihoods as the corporations expand operations into the farthest reaches of the Amazon.

- A network, Diverse Women for Diversity, are calling for an end to what they term ‘biopiracy’

– the patenting of indigenous biodiversity-related knowledge such as the anti-diabetic properties of various herbs and plants.

- Women in the Caribbean are facing the erosion of the social, economic and political gains made since independence as they acknowledge the threats to small island developing states in a globalised marketplace in which the economies of scale place them at a disadvantage in relation to larger-scale enterprises.

- Women in Europe are outraged at having to accept hormone-treated dairy products from the US.

- Women in North America are feeling the threat to their water supplies posed by corporate control of water. In the case of the US, its the quality of drinking water; for Canadians a clash over public welfare and private interests.

WOMEN EVERYWHERE HAVE JOINED THE CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE EXPANSION OF THE PRESENT SCOPE OF THE WTO THROUGH THE SO-CALLED MILLENIUM ROUND. WE DEMAND THAT AN ASSESSMENT SHOULD BE MADE OF THE IMPACTS OF THE AGREEMENTS TO DATE BEFORE ANY NEW AREAS ARE BROUGHT WITHIN THE AMBIT OF THE WTO.

I have a sense that, after all these years the general public is still unclear on the reasons for a special focus on women and gender issues in the field of development. I hope that the work being carried out on the impact of the new trade agreements on gender relations and on women’s lives will help to strengthen understanding in this area.

I refer the press to some of the activities related to this currently taking place in this region: - In 1994 UNIFEM commissioned a series of research papers on the impact of trade on women. In December, UNIFEM Caribbean with the support of CIDA will host a regional meeting to present the research findings and to plan future activities. - Research focussing on women in the banana industry has also been carried out under the auspices of the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research (CAFRA). - DAWN Caribbean also has a project linking research and advocacy on trade issues. - I am also a co-sponsor of a global project on gender and trade, which plans a Strategic Planning Seminar in Grenada in December, probably following the regional meeting sponsored by UNIFEM.

The issue is not whether to have global trade rules, but rather what kind of rules, in whose interest do they operate and how they should be balanced to ensure that they do not have adverse impacts on social, health and environmental spheres nor worsen existing inequities.