Belling the Cat

It is my privilege and pleasure to welcome you to this workshop on the Theme “Strengthening Gender Analysis of International and Bi-lateral Trade”. This workshop is sponsored by Women in Development Europe (WIDE) and organized by the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research & Action (CAFRA).

The Facilitators for this Workshop are Judith Wedderburn, Director of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) Jamaica; Cecelia Babb, Deputy Coordinator of the Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC) Barbados; Christobel Ashton, Literacy Coordinator, Caribbean Gender and Trade Network,(CGTN), St.Vincent and the Grenadines. The CGTN is an organsation set up to strengthen the capacity of Caribbean women’s organizations for understanding the impact of Trade Liberalisation on women’s economic and social advancement.

On the 3rd day of the Workshop, we will be joined by Bro. David Abdullah, Trade Unionist, Trinidad Tobago;Derek Alleyne, Consultant, Barbados; and Melanie Callender of the CPDC, for an exploration of the Labour Dimensions of International Trade. The Agenda for that day is subject to change, in order to build on the outcomes of the first two days.

You have been invited to this workshop with the expectation that the deliberations on these serious matters affecting people’s daily lives will lead TO GREATER ADVOCACY AND LOBBYING FOR CHANGE.

Let me digress to say, as well, that you have also been invited to participate in the warmth and industry of the people of Trinidad and Tobago, and therefore leisure has been built into our Agenda. Each day’s work ends at 3.30 p.m. aith a half-day tomorrow 5th September.

To return to work, I give a bit of history on advocacy on trade. In 1999 in Seattle, people’s resistance successfully brought the WTO Ministerial Negotiations to a halt.. We have since seen the stalling of the FTAA, and recently the collapse f the Doha Round Negotiations. Our resistance must be even more focused and determined, since like the mythical Gorgon’s Head, each time we cut off one head, a new one grows. The WTO is on our doorstep in the form of the CSME, and we need to influence the Regional Negotiating Machinery to protect the region’s people.

The rising food prices and general high cost of living is no accident. There is direct bearing on the trade liberalisation process which has destroyed traditional livelihoods. We want back Sustainable Livelihoods – and we must work to accomplish it.

There is the well known story of the mice who held Council as to how to protect the cat that was rapidly depleting their numbers. The brilliant idea was to hang a bell around the cat’s neck, and the tinkling of the bell would warn the mice of his approach. The question was, “Who would bell the cat?”

In producing Gender Indicators on Trade, CAFRA and CPDC have indeed devised a brilliant plan to warn of the dangers to livelihoods that lurk in the current trade agreements imposed upon the region’s people. We are not faced with the question of who? – it is rather – ‘How, What, When and Where? And we expect to have workable answers by the end of this Workshop. NO TO FREE TRADE –YES TO FAIR TRADE!

I Thank You

Nelcia Robinson

Coordinator

CAFRA