Canada’s “Feminist” Trade Policy?

Amidst the decline in liberal internationalism and multilateralism, Canada has emerged as a champion of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. Since 2017, Canada has pursued a feminist trade policy geared to: (1) formulating domestic trade policies that identify and mitigate the gender-differential impacts of international trade flows and of international trade rules, and harnessing the potential of international trade to contribute to gender equality domestically and in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); (2) developing best practices for the formulation, implementation, monitoring, and enforcement of gender chapters and gender non-discrimination provisions in bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) that can serve as the new international legal standard on gender and trade; and (3) agenda setting in international policy dialogue, developing indicators and reporting practices, and formulating, implementing, monitoring and enforcing gender clauses in multilateral trade agreements. Using a feminist international political economy (IPE) lens, this chapter assesses Canada’s leadership on gender and trade in a post-neoliberal era. It takes stock of a range of policy initiatives aimed at leveraging trade for gender equality and makes a series of recommendations for how Canada can better deliver on its promise to use trade to improve the lives of women and other vulnerable communities.