45 Amendments of Maria NOICHL related to 2017/2015(INI)
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas the empowerment of women, the promotion of their rights and the safeguarding of their access to resources can accelerate development; whereas trade agreements without this particular focus have the potential to further disadvantage women due to their already disadvantaged position in society or increase inequality and endanger people’s livelihoods in general;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Recital B c (new)
Recital B c (new)
Bc. whereas the adoption of new trade agreements with other countries and/or regions of the world can lead to employment shifts and losses of formerly acquired export-oriented jobs; whereas this affects women in particular as export- related sectors are often female- dominated;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 25 a (new)
Citation 25 a (new)
– having regard to its resolution of 9 June 2015 on the EU Strategy for equality between women and men post-2015;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas trade policies affect women in the Global South differently than women in the Global North;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
Bb. whereas more than 40% of agricultural work in the Global South is done by women, whereas women farmers are mostly small-scale or subsistence farmers who do not have the necessary access to information, credit, land or networks to successfully compete in a global market;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 31 a (new)
Citation 31 a (new)
– having regard to the EU Presidency Trio declaration on gender equality of 19 July 2017 by Estonia, Bulgaria and Austria;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Recital B d (new)
Recital B d (new)
Bd. whereas countries in the Global South rely on revenues made from import tariffs for their national budgets; whereas an increase of value added tax (VAT), in order to counterbalance this loss of revenue, represents an additional financial hurdle to women and their families;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas women are working more often than men in low-paid, low-valued and precarious positions in all sectors and will thus most probably benefit to a lower degree from trade liberalisation processes than men; whereas women, seen in a lower bargaining position, are often misused as a competitive advantage in a global economy;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Regrets that the European Commission’s strategy “Trade for All” does not include a clear gender perspective and calls on the Commission to update the strategy in this regard;
Amendment 23 #
1a. Calls for a development-centred and gender-sensitive trade policy which guarantees negotiations on equal terms between trade partners;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A d (new)
Recital -A d (new)
-Ad. whereas the relationship between international trade and gender is complex and demands a deep understanding of economic and social dynamics, as well as of specific local contexts, in order to develop efficient trade policies to pursue economic development and poverty reduction, while also promoting women’s empowerment and gender equality;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Emphasises the need for gender analysis and perspectives to be integrated systematically into trade and investment policies, and into the trade-related capacity building programmes of international finance institutions, donors and intergovernmental organisations, through ex-ante analysis and, monitoring and ex-post assessments, with a view to overcoming the potentially negative gender impacts of different trade measures and instruments; underlines that ex-post assessments should analyse changes in land distribution, food security, job shifts and/or losses and possible migration flows from a gender-perspective;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Calls on the Commission to introduce mandatory ex-post assessments; stresses that these should be evaluating trade agreements' effects on countries and regions that are not part of the respective trade agreements as well;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas article 8 TFUE states that the European Union should, through all its actions inside and outside of the Union, aim at eliminating inequalities and promote equality between women and men;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas the success of trade policy should also be judged on whether it positively impacts women and men equally, contributing to narrow the existing gender gaps, and not reproducing or exacerbating existing gaps and inequalities; whereas therefore the various and complex effects on women and men must be identified, analysed and monitored;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Emphasises the need for governments to maintain their ability to allocate resources to the achievement of women’s rights and gender equality in order to guarantee an inclusive and sustainable future for societies;
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas a trade policy that increases inequalities and impacts people’s livelihoods negatively increases the pressure to migrate, especially for women, and must therefore be analysed and addressed;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas country-specific and sector-specific assessments are of great importancetrade policies are not gender-neutral and may have different direct and indirect impacts on men and women, depending, among other elements, on existing socio-economic and cultural structures; whereas women tend to be more concentrated in precarious, low-wage or low- status forms of formal and informal employment than men, leading to gender segregation in types of occupations and activities and gender gaps in wages and, working conditions; and social protection; whereas, in this sense, Country-by-Country gender disaggregated and sector-specific assessments are of great importance, but are not yet available;
Amendment 62 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Stresses that women in the Global South often lack access to affordable health care and medicines, a situation which could be exacerbated by a strong protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in trade agreements;
Amendment 64 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9b. Stresses that women who work in subsistence agriculture face additional hurdles to maintain food sovereignty because of strong Protection of New Varieties of Plants via the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV Convention) in trade agreements;
Amendment 65 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 c (new)
Paragraph 9 c (new)
9c. Underlines that EU agricultural imports may undercut traditional small- scale farms and thereby may endanger women’s livelihoods;
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas the current EU trade policy and its ‘Trade for All’ strategy lack a gender equality perspective, as well as any binding obligations to enforcereference to binding and fully enforceable obligations to guarantee effective implementation of core women’s rights conventions such as the CEDAW;
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the only area of gender equality in which DG Trade has demonstrated an interest so far is promoting female entrepreneurshipwomen are not only affected by trade and trade agreements as potential entrepreneurs, but also as consumers, workers in different sectors, like e.g. the export-oriented sector, services, agriculture or as caregivers; whereas these diverse roles need to be taken into account by trade policy in order to promote and empower women;
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas strong movements have evolved in several countries, criticisingthe public debate across Europe on trade agreements such as TTIP, CETA and TiSA has shown the need for transparent and inclusive negotiations taking into account the strong concerns voiced by European citizens in many countries, which have expressed their worries, in particular, about FTA's provisions on investor-sState dispute settlement / the investment court system (ISDS/ICS) and intellectual property rights (IPR), as well as non-tariff rules in TTIP, CETA and TiSA,, fearing that they could lead to breaches of women’s rights, labour rights, environmental protection, consumer rights and public services and goods, which may have an impact on women’s rights;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas civil society, particularly women’s rights organisations and trade unions, hasve the knowledge and potential to play a crucial role in shaping and monitoring trade policies in order to strengthen women’s rights and their economic empowerment;
Amendment 134 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I a (new)
Recital I a (new)
Ia. whereas decisions on trade and trade agreements are only to a small extent made by women as negotiating teams, parliaments and governments are still far from achieving a gender balanced composition; whereas gender balance in these institutions could not only lead to a better integration of gender equality issues but also increase democratic legitimacy of decision-making;
Amendment 140 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I b (new)
Recital I b (new)
Ib. whereas women rely more than men on the affordable access to healthcare and to medicines and their availability, especially with regards to their sexual and reproductive health and rights;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I c (new)
Recital I c (new)
Ic. whereas an above-average number of women is employed in public services or in the public service sector and, as users of these services, are more dependent on high-quality, affordable, accessible and demand-driven public services than men, particularly with regard to social services such as child care and care for dependents; whereas cuts in national households and cuts to public services, as well as price increases, tend to shift this care burden nearly exclusively onto women which will consequently hinder gender equality;
Amendment 148 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses that fair and inclusive international trade policies require a clearer framework aiming to enhancimprove women’s livelihooding and working conditions, strengthen gender equality, protect the environment, and promote social justice and international solidarity;
Amendment 157 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Calls on the EU and its Members States to systematically carry out ex-ante and ex-post evaluations of trade policies from a gender perspective, with an improved methodology, clear and measurable indicators, allowing to assess the possible effects of EU trade policies on gender equality and women empowerment as well as to consider possible offensive and defensive interests to defend, throughout entire process of trade negotiations, from negotiation to execution; stresses that all impact assessments and evaluations of EU Trade Agreements and trade policies should be supported by sufficient and adequate gender disaggregated data and a detailed analysis at regional, national, as well as sectorial levels, with particular attention to women in most vulnerable socio- economic sectors; stresses that the results of the gender-focused analysis should be incorporated into trade negotiations, foreseeing the necessary strategies and measures to compensate losses and imbalances;
Amendment 167 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Stresses that the EU is obliged to ensure a high level of protection of human, labour and consumer rights and of social and environmental standards as well as the promotion of gender equality; believes that these values should guide transnational and national trade, including all trade agreements that should also be used as a means of actively supporting these objectives;
Amendment 168 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Calls on the Commission to increase policy coherence among different but interlinked policies, such as trade, development, agriculture, employment, migration and gender equality, and to include the impact on women’s and girl’s rights, their empowerment, as well as the right to health, education, food, work and water; calls on the Commission to include these considerations in its impact assessments to counteract any negative impact from trade agreements, or from their interactions;
Amendment 175 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. URegrets that human rights often seem subordinated to corporate rights in trade relations; underlines the urgent need to adopt gender-sensitive binding human rights regulations on an international level to regulate transnational companies (TNCs) and other companies; welcomes the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights;
Amendment 199 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Notes that IPR provisions in trade have a significant impact on women’s health which must be taken carefully into considerationCalls on the Commission and the Council to ensure that IPR provisions in trade agreements take due account of women's rights, particularly their impact on women’s health, including access to affordable healthcare and medicines, which must be taken fully into consideration; further, calls on the Commission and the Council to promote the protection of IPR in negotiations, particularly the protection of Geographical Indications (GI), as a tool particularly important for rural women empowerment; further, it calls the Commission, the Council and Member States to reconsider the extension of protection to non-agricultural products, bearing in mind not only that this can be a very useful tool to promote women empowerment in both in developed and developing countries, but also that the EU has already agreed to protect non- agricultural GI products in FTAs;
Amendment 225 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls for binding and enforceable measures to combat exploitation and improve working conditions for women in the export- oriented industries, in particular the garment and textile manufacturing and agriculture sectors where trade liberaliszation hasmight contributed to precarious labour rights and the increase of gender wage gaps;
Amendment 242 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Underlines that the impact of growing agricultural exports is generally less favourable to women than to men, as emerging trends indicate that small farmers, many of whom are women, are often not in a position to compete in overseas markets due to the lack of access to credit, information, land and networks as well as a lack of possibilities to comply with new rules and standards;
Amendment 259 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Welcomes the fact that the SIAs done by the European Commission must use a gender-indicator in their analysis; regrets that the results do not seem to be fully incorporated in trade negotiations;
Amendment 270 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Calls for the inclusion of a human rights clause in all trade agreements that includes gender equality, in order to guarantee the protection of girl’s and women’s rights and their participation in trade and services, as well as the inclusion of appropriate indicators to guarantee gender equality in the implementation of trade agreements;
Amendment 275 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Stresses that trading commitments in EU agreements should never overrule human rights, women’s rights or environmental concerns; and therefore suggests at least the inclusion of human rights experts in arbitration processes;
Amendment 287 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Calls for mandatory ex-post evaluations from a gender perspective in order to analyse whether permanent and quality employment was created, changes in the composition of the labour force in different sectors could be detected, labour standards have been implemented or segregation in particular sectors has been challenged;
Amendment 328 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Calls for the EU and the Member States to ensure inclusive participation in trade consultations, including women’s rights organisations, trade unions and civil society and thus increase transparency for European citizens;
Amendment 334 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Calls on the trade partners to prepare substantial and sustainable counter-measures on anticipated negative effects of trade agreements on women;
Amendment 337 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 b (new)
Paragraph 18 b (new)
18b. Calls for gender balanced negotiating teams in order to fully take into account all gender aspects of trade agreements;
Amendment 339 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 c (new)
Paragraph 18 c (new)
18c. Asks the Commission to guarantee that ecological and social criteria, including gender equality criteria, can be applied in awarding public procurement contracts;