WCO-Sweden Aid For Trade Gender Integration Event

On the 3rd of July 2019, on occasion of the WTO Global Review of Aid for Trade, the WCO organized jointly, together with the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), the World Bank Group (WBG) and the European Commission, a parallel session on Gender Integration in Aid for Trade Facilitation entitled “Existing tools and lessons learned.”

The parallel session was opened by the Minister for Foreign Trade of Sweden, Ms. Ann Linde, who emphasized the importance of integrating gender in Aid for Trade initiatives and called upon international donors to allocate more funding for trade initiatives supporting gender equality.

The Minister also highlighted the opportunities generated by the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TFA) to simplify trade flows which is particularly important for SMEs, many of which are women-owned.