El Salvador Co-Leads WTO's Trade and Gender Group into 2026

By Edy Portal, Eproint

On February 20, 2026, members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender (IWG) held the first of a series of thematic discussions for the year, focusing on mainstreaming the topic of trade and gender in the work of WTO bodies, in line with the group's 2025–2026 Work Plan.

The three co-chairs — Ambassador Patricia Benedetti of El Salvador, Ambassador James Baxter of Australia and Ambassador Clara Delgado of Cabo Verde— explained that adopting a thematic focus for each meeting helps maintain closer links to the Work Plan. The next thematic focuses for 2026 will be on intellectual property, women's trade networks, and digitalization. 

During the meeting, the co-chairs briefed members on several upcoming deliverables. These include a Joint Statement for the 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14), a joint communication with the Informal Working Group on Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) proposing a new compendium titled "Empowering Women to Trade through Digitalisation: Policy Insights," and preparations for an MC14 side event on gender, scheduled for March 25 — a collaborative initiative by the WTO Secretariat, the International Trade Centre (ITC), the IWG, and the MSMEs Group. 

Also at the meeting, the European Union reported on a joint initiative with ITC to develop a "Global Trade Policy Toolkit on Women's Economic Empowerment," aimed at supporting policymakers in applying a gender lens to trade policy development and implementation. Canada reported on a side event on menstrual product safety and efforts toward global standardization, held in the margins of the Technical Barriers to Trade Committee in November 2025, co-organized with the United Kingdom, Barbados, and Costa Rica. 

Background: What the IWG Is

The Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender is co-chaired by El Salvador, Cabo Verde and the United Kingdom, and its work is based on four pillars: reviewing analytical work, experience sharing, considering how a "gender lens" can be applied to WTO work, and contributing to the Aid for Trade work programme. 

It was established on September 23, 2020, as the next phase of an initiative launched at the Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires in 2017 — the Joint Declaration on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment. As of May 2024, 130 WTO members and five observers participate in the group. 

El Salvador's Role

Ambassador Patricia Benedetti of El Salvador has served as co-chair of the IWG since its early stages, alongside counterparts from Cabo Verde and the United Kingdom. Together, the co-chairs have led consultations with members to shape the group's priorities, emphasizing the importance of agreeing on the 2025–2026 Work Plan as a tool to move substantive work forward. 

Key themes members have raised under this leadership include gender-disaggregated trade data, digitalization as a tool for women's empowerment, support for women entrepreneurs, and mainstreaming gender issues across WTO bodies.