Global Affairs Canada’s Trade Policy and Negotiations Branch's Gender Pledge
Canada is committed to advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women, including their economic empowerment. Consistent with Canada’s Feminist Foreign Policy, Canada is pursuing an inclusive approach to trade that seeks to ensure that benefits and opportunities resulting from free trade agreements (FTAs) and foreign investment promotion and protection agreements (FIPAs) are widely shared, including among women workers, entrepreneurs and business owners.
To that end, and in response to the Budget 2018 commitment that all FTAs must be subject to a gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) process, Global Affairs Canada’s Trade Policy and Negotiations Branch intends to continue building on the important work that has been accomplished to date, and makes a gender pledge that sets out specific commitments and key actions that the Trade Policy and Negotiations Branch will undertake going forward with respect to GBA+, trade and gender, and inclusive trade. The Assistant Deputy Minister and the Director General GBA+ Champion of the Trade Policy and Negotiations Branch have approved our gender pledge, and they encourage all staff to adopt it.
We pledge to:
- recognize that GBA+ brings value to our work and is a policy innovation tool that will help us do our jobs better and help us make good public policy that meets the needs of everyone
- set aside the traditional assumption that the effects of trade are gender neutral, adopt continuous learning principles, keep an open mind, and integrate lessons learned and best practices in our work
- commit to integrate GBA+ findings into ongoing FTA and FIPA negotiations by regularly updating the GBA+ process and integrating findings into negotiation strategies
- consult a broad range of stakeholders in our work, including those that are often underrepresented, so that we hear their voices and seek to address their comments in trade policy and FTA negotiations to the extent possible
- recognize that trade policy may not necessarily be able to address all GBA+ findings and therefore collaborate with other government departments as necessary to develop or reorient domestic programs and policies to address the potential risk of the negative effects of FTAs
- identify gaps in data and knowledge and inform the GBA+ Champion and Gender Focal Point so that these can be addressed
- share Canada’s learnings on GBA+ implementation in trade policy with our FTA partners and relevant international organizations such as the World Trade Organization, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum
