First Trade and Gender Committee meeting under the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) Trade and Gender Chapter

Canada and Chile held their first Trade and Gender Committee meeting under the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) Trade and Gender Chapter on April 26, 2019 - marking another milestone in Canada-Chile relationship and our shared commitment to advance women’s economic empowerment.  The Committee meeting was co-chaired by Chile, represented by María Ignacia Simonetti Retamales, Head of the Gender Department of Chile´s General Directorate of International Economic Affairs (DIRECON), and Canada, represented by co-leads, André-François Giroux, Director, Trade Agreements Secretariat,  Global Affairs Canada,  and Anne Malépart, on behalf of Natalie St-Lawrence, Director, Intergovernmental & International Relations, Policy and External Relations Directorate for Department for Women and Gender Equality.

The Committee meeting was an opportunity to celebrate the entry into force of the Canada-Chile Trade and Gender Chapter of the modernized CCFTA, and to review progress on implementation of activities and achievements to date. These include:

• The visit of Chilean Minister of Women and Gender Equality, Isabel Plá, to Canada in October 2018;
• Canada and Chile’s participation at the National GBA+ Forum in Ottawa, Canada in November 2018 and their respective presentations on how trade agreements can be made gender-responsive;
• Targeted outreach in January 2019 by the Canadian Embassy to Chile sharing Canada’s experience in applying GBA+ to summits (i.e. G7) to help advance this issue in the context of Chile’s 2019 APEC Presidency;
• The Capacity Building Workshop on Women and Trade (the ‘Workshop’) hosted by Canada, New Zealand and Chile on March 5, 2019, on the margins of the first APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM1) in Santiago, Chile, which included presentations by all three countries on their respective experiences in integrating gender-responsive provisions into trade agreements.

Looking forward, the Committee adopted its two year look-ahead evergreen work plan and decided to publish a copy of the work plan on Canada’s and Chile’s respective websites. In pursuing future activities, both Canada and Chile underscored the importance of not limiting themselves to bilateral opportunities but also leveraging opportunities in various events and multilateral fora as appropriate (i.e. as APEC, WTO, OECD, etc.).

The Committee agreed to meet for its second meeting around the first-year anniversary of the entry into force of the chapter (February 2020) to review progress made in implementing the Trade and Gender chapter and discuss planning for the year ahead.  A full report on activities implemented under the chapter during its first year of implementation will be published following the second meeting of the Committee and will include information on results achieved and lessons learned to date.