Trade in the Americas: Women Central to the Debate

This paper examines the reality of trade in the Americas. It describes and evaluates the different regional trade agreements in the Americas and examines the impact of trade and trade negotiations from a gender perspective in areas like water privatisation, health services, food security and workers' rights. The paper makes a number of recommendations for women's movements to consider as they build alternatives relevant to trade and investment:- review definitions around "social reproduction", "social provisioning" and "human agency" to gain a comprehensive understanding of the factors which contribute to formal and informal economy;- challenge trade and investment policies which do not review impacts in relation to social reproduction, provisioning and human agency- ensure that goals for trade policy are designed in relation to other fiscal and monetary policies, as well as social, economic and political concerns - allow some policy space that countries and communities can use to develop their national and regional development priorities- ensure that alternative development models are responsive to gender issues.