Report: 2nd Canada - European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) meeting on Trade and Gender by Videoconference, Ottawa and Brussels, June 14th, 2019.
Report
1. Welcome and Introductions
The second meeting on the CETA Joint Committee Trade and Gender recommendation took place via videoconference in Ottawa and Brussels on June 14th, 2019. Three presentations were delivered—two by Canada and one by the EU. The presentations delivered on item 3 of the Canada-EU Trade and Gender Implementation Plan— “Exchange of information on policies and programs that support women entrepreneurs from both a domestic and international point of view.”
2. Presentations by Canada
The first presentation was on Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy and it was delivered by a representative of the Women Entrepreneurship Policy Division, Small Business Branch, Innovation, Science and Development Canada.The strategy was launched in Budget 2018: the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES) and received an investment of $2 billion and has a goal of doublingthe number of women-owned businesses by 2025. The second presentation by Canada was on Canada’s Business Women in International Trade (BWIT) and was delivered by Global Affairs Canada officials from the Consultations and Domestic Outreach Division. BWIT advocates and supports women entrepreneurs to take advantage of international trade opportunities. BWIT focuses on export services and products, and their trade missions are always multi-sectoral. A question and answer session followed the presentations.
3. Presentation by the European Union
The EU presentation was delivered by an official from EU Directorate-General GROW - Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. The presentation described the EU’s platforms that are available to promote women’s entrepreneurship (e.g. WEgate and Enterprise Business Network) while also discussing some of the challenges that the EU is facing in implementing an official strategy (e.g. lack of gender disaggregated data). The EU also noted the Trade for Her conference in Brussels, September 2019 and invited Canada to attend. A question and answer session followed the presentation.
4. Next Steps:
Both parties agreed to share the material discussed in the presentations and questions and answer sessions.
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