World Day for Decent Work: Where are workers' voices when trade shocks hit?

The dual trade shock and its impact on Madagascar’s garment and textile sector

In April 2025, the US administration imposed a 47 per cent tariff on Madagascar’s imports, later revised to 15 per cent. This coincided with the expiry and subsequent one-year renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which grants eligible countries duty-free access to the US market. The Madagascar case study that formed part of the FES publication “Gendered Impacts – Blind Responses: The 2025 Tariff Crisis and the Case for Gender Transformative Reforms” reveals how this dual trade disruption exposed asymmetries in the global trade structure tipped towards US buyers, as seen in Madagascar’s women-predominant garment and textile (G&T) export processing zones (known as Zones d’Entreprises Franches, ZEF). 

At a time when trade negotiations have become, and will continue to be, a defining feature of this new trade era, this power asymmetry reveals whose voices are represented in trade policymaking. When Madagascar renegotiated its tariffs and AGOA access, an employer organisation was represented in the negotiating delegation, while women workers played no role in the process. This absence was no coincidence; it reflects a system that underrepresents women in two ways: by limiting their participation in trade unions and excluding them from trade policymaking.

Firms had a seat at the table, while workers took to the streets

Garment and textile firms are represented by the Groupement des Entreprises Franches et Partenaires (GEFP), a well-organised lobby group that maintains regular dialogue with the government and acts as a US-facing bloc through its engagement with the Africa Coalition for Trade. Both the GEFP and several individual employers joined Malagasy trade delegations, aiming to secure favourable renewal terms and tariff reductions. While well organised, the bloc also faced immense pressure from US buyers, as the case study reveals.

Yet the workers themselves had no comparable access, instead responding reactively by taking to the streets to protest employers’ mass layoffs following the dual trade shock. As one government official put it, “Women workers in factories rarely have a voice to negotiate in formal trade discussions.”

The right to organise in ZEFs exists only on paper

Unlike many export processing zones that are exempt from labour laws, Madagascar’s ZEF firms are subject to the same national labour code, and ZEF workers have the right to freedom of association. As a member of the International Labour Organization (ILO) committed to tripartism, Madagascar’s system of worker representation operates at three institutional levels: staff delegates at the firm level, central trade unions representing workers across sectors, and the National Labour Council (CNT) at the national level. 

In principle, this structure should allow workers’ concerns to move from the factory floor to national policy, including the trade decisions that shape the conditions under which they work. In practice, two critical gaps emerge:

First gap: Women are largely absent from unions

Union representatives and workers report that men outnumber women in unions, even though women comprise 57 per cent of the G&T workforce. While union membership is largely guaranteed for workers, women’s active participation in unions is not. In a recent survey, 83 per cent of women workers reported that their employer had a union, but only 35 per cent were active members. 

This membership gap stems from limited awareness of trade unions’ role, fear of employer reprisals for union activity, and perceptions that unions are politicised. As one union representative noted, “Although the structure exists, operating freely remains a challenge, with companies exerting pressure to limit union activity.”

While women are increasingly standing for staff delegate elections, they rarely secure more than the alternate delegate position. That said, some unions are taking steps to ensure that women’s issues reach the union agenda. One trade union, USAM, introduced a 40 per cent national quota for women’s representation, while others have established gender equality committees.

But union efforts can only achieve so much while structural barriers persist. Union activity carries risks for every worker involved, including dismissal, formal warnings, reduced working hours, and lost wages. For women, these risks are compounded by family and caregiving responsibilities, which compete directly with the time required for active union participation. 

Further, as women workers themselves report, “Men are more able to stand up to the hierarchy.” Union activity is therefore a demand women workers must weigh against more immediate concerns, such as maternity leave and breastfeeding breaks. As a government official put it, “They can’t ask for much; there are lots of people who need this job.”

Second gap: Unions are largely absent from trade policymaking

At the national level, fragmented objectives among trade unions also make it difficult to organise a unified, representative front through which workers can gain access to trade policymaking processes. This fragmentation is compounded by limited institutional representation in trade policymaking. The latest World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade Policy Review noted that Madagascar had no interministerial coordination committee for trade policy, although it acknowledged that various employers’ organisations and trade unions are involved in formulating Madagascar’s trade policy on an ad hoc basis.

While the tripartite CNT brings together government, unions, and employers, its remit does not extend to employment, wages, and social security, nor does it appear to have an institutional role in trade policymaking, which ultimately shapes the labour standards that apply to ZEF workers. 

Redefining whose voices are heard

Both gaps must be addressed simultaneously. Women must be protected from reprisals so that they can join unions, and the unions need a genuine seat at the table in trade negotiations rather than merely ad hoc consultation. Representation alone cannot rebalance a trade negotiation table where employers arrive organised and well-represented, the government negotiates from a weakened position amid overlapping crises, and both sit across from US buyers holding most of the leverage. 

Drawing on the FES handbook Transformative strategies towards gender equality in trade unions, this calls for decisive action at three levels:

1. Expand women’s representation within trade unions. Unions themselves must actively promote women’s participation and leadership, including through institutionalised gender quotas and women’s committees, while placing issues such as care responsibilities, sexual harassment, and maternity benefits firmly on union agendas.

2. Shield women from employer reprisals. Women workers’ collective bargaining rights should be strengthened, while their representation should be encouraged through factory-level staff associations supported by coalition building. 

3. Institutionalise workers’ voices in trade policymaking. A national seat is necessary but not sufficient when buyers hold most of the power. Tripartite bodies such as the CNT should be expanded beyond wages and social security to give organised labour a standing role in trade policy formulation, while regional and international alliances (e.g., the ITUC and global union federations) can help connect workers’ voices to the buyers and value chains that shape the terms of trade.

This article draws on a wider FES case study on the gendered impact of Madagascar’s dual trade shock from US-imposed tariffs and AGOA expiry and one-year renewal. Here, we follow one thread: worker representation through trade unions and presence in trade negotiations.

Sabrina Salameh is a senior consultant at social and environmental research consultancy, Shared Planet, where she leads on Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) service delivery and specialises in the political economy of trade and trade development through a gender justice lens. Prior to this, Sabrina led Jordan’s first trade hub for women. She holds an MSc in Development Management from LSE and a BSc in Industrial Engineering.