Joint Report of the First Activity under the CETA Trade and Gender Work Plan 2020-2021

On October 26, 2020, the Office of the Chief Economist at Global Affairs Canada presented the economic modelling and data frameworks for Gender Based Analysis (GBA+) they developed to assess both ex-ante and ex-post impact of trade agreements on labour and gender in Canada. 

The presentation featured an introduction to the Office of the Chief Economist’s advanced Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, which includes a labour market module that enables an analysis of the impact of trade liberalization on labour by gender, age, and occupation.  The presentation also provided an example of an ex-post assessment on the impact of a trade agreement on labour in the context of Canada-US FTA (CUSFTA) using the detailed labour data over time to track a worker’s participation in the labour market and mobility across firm and industry following the implementation of the trade agreement.

The labour market module represents an advanced methodology for assessing a trade agreement that is more people centered.  It aims to capture the economic outcomes not just in terms of GDP and trade gains, but also by gender, occupation, and age group for the people that are potentially affected by trade.

In a subsequent videoconference on 30 November 2020, the Chief Economist’s Unit at DG TRADE presented the results of an internal study: “Female Participating in EU Exporting Activities: Jobs and Wages”. Originally made available in September 2019, the study estimates the gender gap in employment opportunities generated by extra-EU trade in comparison with total employment in the EU. The study found significant gender differences in terms of labour participation resulting from EU exports to the world, as well as the wage premium compared to jobs in the overall economy.

DG TRADE also delivered a presentation on its ongoing joint project with UNCTAD: “Better Statistics for Gender Responsive Trade Policy”. The two-year project, which kicked off in January 2020, aims to improve the gender dimension of international trade statistics for EU Member States. It also aims to assess: (i) data availability in the European Statistical System and beyond for gender and trade analysis, (ii) improve the gender dimension of trade by bridging the gap between macro and micro data and (iii) define key trade and gender indicators for trade policy use in the EU.

These videoconferences deliver on the first action item under the CETA Trade and Gender recommendation work plan for 2020-2021: sharing methods and procedures for the collection of gender disaggregated data, the use of indicators, monitoring and evaluation methodologies, and the analysis of gender-focused statistics related to trade (point 4(a) of recommendation). Canada and the EU have committed to update each other on developments with data collection and analysis to support the development and implementation of gender responsive trade agreements and gender impact analysis.