Collapse of the WTO Doha Negotiations: Public Health and Trade

Collapse of the WTO Doha Negotiations: Public Health and Trade
August 1st, 2008 by bronxdoc
appointed by dr. Maria Inês Reinert Azambuja
On Wednesday, July 28th the Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations collapsed in Geneva. The immediate cause of the collapse was related to agricultural protectionism. But the underlying issue seems to be the increasing willingness of developing nations to challenge the WTO. In the words of Bolivian President Evo Morales: “The WTO negotiations have turned into a fight by developed countries to open markets in developing countries to favor their big companies.”

In this posting we will briefly consider some resources for understanding the broad importance of global trade for public health.

The San Francisco-based Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health has been at the forefront of bringing attention to the public health implications of trade. Ellen Shaffer of CPATH was the lead author on a excellent summary of the issues Global Trade and Public Health published in the American Journal of Public Health. CPATH signals four key areas of public health concern in trade agreements:

Health Services: the “export” of health services, often a cover for privatization public systems.
Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines
Public Health Protections: often attacked as “trade barriers”
Water /.../