Gender Indicators

"Number of new jobs created compared to number of jobs lost by men and women at each wage level in the movement of labour from Agriculture to Services” is a primary gender indicator that must be used to inform aspects of a trade agreement in a context where agriculture is no longer paramount and services is projected as the new commanding height of regional economies. The several data sets required for accurate “fore-sighting” and gender analysis of real benefits be derived in each negotiating area and which would guide our trade off between concessions and demands is unluckily not available for the four project countries despite the dominant role of trade in economies of the region.

In 1991 it accounted for 80% of GDP in the Caribbean. However the region’s trade balance has worsened in the last decade – the period of intensified trade liberalization. The region’s share of world merchandise export dropped from 1.7% in 1950 to 0.2% in 2000. Although the decline in goods has been somewhat counterbalanced by expansion of the services sector the Caribbean’s share of world export of services has gone from 0.75% in 1980 to 0.6% in 1999. The ratio of exports/imports dropped from 86% in 1990 to 51% in 1999. The trade balance with the EU fell from a trade surplus in 1990 of 104% export/import ratio, to 76% in 1999. In that period CARICOM’s exports to EU fluctuated around 20% while imports, which were 16.8% in 1990 declined to 11.9% in 1999. CARICOM’s current trade balance with the US reveals that its export/import ratio of 84% in 1990 plummeted to 41% by 1999. CARICOM now sources 52% of its imports from the US, while selling 40% of its exports to that market [1] .

In sum, the region depends greatly on external trade yet the overall trade balance of CARICOM is negative. The Caribbean has performed poorly in trade in general and it is speculated that preferential market access may have supported the region’s exports to the EU. Given that our growing dependence on the US market for regional imports has resulted in a more pronounced trade imbalance, acceptance of more liberalized trading arrangements with the US, EU, and other regions has serious implications for CARICOM. It should take stock that in contrast to performance in extra-regional trade, intra-regional exports have shown a positive trend, growing from10% in 1980 to 11.8% in 1990 to 19.3% in 1999 of all CARICOM exports, with estimates at 22% for 2004.

Trade policy aught to be formulated on the basis of information and analysis but it is common knowledge that in the Caribbean there is a weak national demand for statistics and data on which to base public policy. Thus even with negotiations of the Free Trade Area of the Americas due to be concluded in December 2004, the April 2004 launch of negotiations for the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union, and the creeping implementation of a CARICOM Single Market and Economy, the potential benefits to the region of these trading arrangements have not yet been forecasted on the basis of evidence. Few impact scenarios have been constructed, potential winners have not been identified, and sector base modeling is at the kindergarten stage. Qualitative analysis to foresight the human development gains is still pending.

Trade analysts frequently use various methods that estimate effective protection rates, social welfare costs, and deadweight losses given the level of tariffs, subsidies and other price or quantity based measures imposed on tradable commodities, to inform national trade priorities. Computer General Equilibrium models are used to get an aggregate measure of the impact on the entire economy, particularly on level and rates of Gross Domestic Product and employment. The basis for judging the desirability of a policy direction is the efficiency impact, mainly on the cost of production or the price of consumption.

The huge oversight in this framework is the importance of tasks and activities that maintain the human resource capital. [2]

The market, the household, and the state are not only sites of about social reproduction – the set of activities that guarantee the care and the essence of human life. As opposed to productive activities, social reproduction is largely unpaid and unrecognized in national accounting although it is the essential base on which the formal productive economy is constructed [3]. This discounting of social reproduction is best explained by gender analysis of the unequal value given to work done by women when compared to the activities of men, and the positioning of poor men in relation to men who are materially better endowed.

CAFRA’s project to identify gender indicators on trade assumes that while civil society activism to stem the tide of galloping trade liberalization will bear fruit in slowing down its pace, new trading relations will develop between the Caribbean and the rest of the world that depart radically from the global pact that once prioritised development of former colonies through special facilitative measures. The Caribbean, however, must be made to remain true to the objective of trade as a means of developing its people. CAFRA and other members of the CRG therefore persist in advocating for the kind of development that puts people before profits and makes trade fair.

If trade liberalization is indeed aimed at sustainable development and the eradication of poverty then social reproduction must receive equal importance as economic production when trade agreements are being framed. Surveys of living conditions are demonstrating that decline in levels of poverty should not be assumed to be a natural corollary of increases in economic growth. Eradication of poverty depends on improvements in all human capabilities, as well as the impact of income distribution on material gains of households. These vital considerations are directly connected to the situation and role of women in our economy and society and must influence the nature of trade agreements.

For example, the growing importance of the regional market has implications for the traditional female agricultural and suitcase traders, and prompts questions as to what special provisions are envisioned for movement of these and other women, who are identifiable forerunners of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy. Monitoring the qualitative dimensions of growth in the intra-regional market might clarify whether it is the goods and services produced by national firms and informal sector activities that are shaping this trend, or whether it is the liberalized entry of extra-regional firms capitalizing on the almost 95% duty free status of intra-regional goods that has given impetus to intra-regional trade.

Another example: the shift in Caribbean economies from export of primary agricultural products to a concentration on services expansion corresponds to the period of trade liberalization. The incomes and livelihoods of many women have been supported by the traditional agricultural base of national economies. Since trade liberalization is driving the shift of labour from agriculture to services, two issues are paramount for CAFRA’s search for gender indicators on trade. The first is whether job creation in services can adequately compensate for the number of jobs lost in agriculture; secondly, do services currently offer better incomes to women at less opportunity cost than did agriculture.

Gender assessments exposed the economic liberalization intent of Structural Adjustment Policies and their disastrous impacts on the quality of life and time burdens of women, who are the primary caregivers of the Caribbean. Ongoing Gender Assessments continue to demonstrate conclusively that conventional planning methods fail to provide the coverage needed to stem increasing levels of poverty and social decay in the region that have accompanied the period of economic and trade liberalization. Thus new tools and approaches are called to so fashion liberalization that it benefits women, their families and the wider society. CAFRA therefore proposes the use of gender indicators on trade as a logical set of planning tools for shaping people centered trade agreements.

Correct use of gender indicators on trade can prevent much of the negative economic and social outcomes already experienced by farmers and wage earners in the banana industry of the Windward Island, the diary industry of Jamaica, and the sugar industry of Trinidad and Tobago, as a direct result of intensified trade liberalization in the Caribbean. Gender indicators must inform the demands made during regional level negotiations of trade agreements. Unless gender indicators actually shape the content of trade agreements there will be little possibility of actualizing human benefits after agreements are signed and sealed.

Women are primary stakeholders who use an empowerment approach in the advancement of the Caribbean. We are concerned to find and analyze the trade data, influence the trade negotiations process, and monitor the implementation of trade agreements. Our intelligence can absorb the technical knowledge required to negotiate trade. We value our human life and prioritize the region’s people whom we bear with our bodies as its prime resources. It is our survivability, creativity and resilience that have brought us to this juncture. We focus on the prized natural ecosystems now sought after as a place of refuge from the development of industrialized regions of the earth. We therefore approach negotiations from the perspective of abundance - not scarcity. We have been materially impoverished and we seek to correct this injustice by our own efforts.

Gender assessment of the Lomé Agreements led to a commitment by the European Commission to make gender a cross-cutting principle of the Cotonou Agreement. These commitments must find full expression in the negotiation and implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreements. A similar approach must infuse the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. The potential benefits of the CSME for women must also be assured by implementation that is gender sensitive.