Chapter 6: Trade and women’s economic empowerment (CEPA Chapter 21)
72.Chapter 21 is new and does not have an analogue in JEEPA. The impact assessment (IA) notes that Chapter 21 “agrees the importance of enhancing opportunities to women to participate equitably in the global economy”, and establishes a Working Group to lead the cooperation activities listed in Article 21.2, which “may include providing advice or training, and exchanging information and experience”.102 However, Chapter 21 does not include any binding commitments, and Article 21.4 excludes it from CEPA’s dispute settlement mechanism.
73.In the most recent Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum, Japan was ranked 121st, and the UK 21st.103 The Government’s objectives for CEPA do not mention women’s economic empowerment, but the theme was raised in its response to submissions to the Call for Input, where it was bundled as “Sustainability, Labour, Gender Equality and Environment”. In response to calls for CEPA to “protect and promote” “gender equality and women’s economic empowerment” and “recognise and address the impacts of trade policy on different genders”, the Government said it “recognise[d] that gender equality [wa]s an important issue and that women continue[d] to face barriers in accessing the opportunities of free trade”, and noted that it was “exploring domestic and international best-practice” to “develop [its] own approaches on how to best support women in trade”.104 The Secretary of State for International Trade has recently set out her vision for “values-driven free trade”, but she did not highlight women’s economic empowerment as one of the core values that might drive UK trade policy.105
74.We are therefore left in some doubt as to whether, given its inclusion in CEPA, this area will be central for the UK as an independent trading nation. We have not received extensive evidence on how trade deals should promote objectives like women’s economic empowerment, but in its 2018 report Trade and the Commonwealth: developing countries, the Commons International Trade Committee took evidence on gender chapters in trade deals and called for the UK to “actively promote gender equality”, “ensur[e] that women can ‘move up the value chain’”, and “develop a truly gender-responsive approach to trade policy”.106
75.We agree with the Commons International Trade Committee that the UK should use trade deals proactively to promote gender equality. CEPA does not reflect a significant step towards that goal. We would welcome further clarity from the Government about how central this issue will be for the UK in future trade negotiations.
76.We welcome the introduction of a chapter on women’s economic empowerment in CEPA, but we note the non-binding nature of the text. While this is common for such chapters in trade deals, we were disappointed at the absence of any reference to this issue in the Government’s outline objectives and the Secretary of State’s recent speech about “values-driven” trade.
102 Department for International Trade, Final Impact Assessment of the Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Japan for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership (23 October 2020) p 24: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/929059/final-impact-assessment-UK-Japan-comprehensive-economic-partnership.pdf [accessed 11 November 2020]. See also Parliamentary report, paras 164–166.
103 World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2020 (16 December 2020): http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2020.pdf [accessed 11 November 2020]
104 Strategic approach, p 21
105 Department for International Trade, ‘Chatham House speech: Liz Truss sets out vision for values-driven free trade’ (29 October 2020): https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/chatham-house-speech-liz-truss-sets-out-vision-for-values-driven-free-trade [accessed 11 November 2020]
106 International Trade Committee, Trade and the Commonwealth: developing countries (Fifth Report, Session 2017–19, HC 667), para 89