Commerce et santé

Introduction

Trade is potentially a far more significant avenue for raising living standards and for economic development in developing countries than development assistance. However, the current regime of global economic regulation is severely tilted against the interests of developing countries. There is a massive flow of value each year from the South to the North.

The rules which govern world trade are formalised in the 23 treaties and agreements which are negotiated and implemented under the aegis of the World Trade Organisation. Understanding the way unfair trade damages health requires an understanding of the formal rules of the WTO and how they are enforced. However, behind the WTO is a complex configuration of stakeholders jostling for advantage and beyond them various constituencies with different interets and perspectives. Analysing the relations of trade and health also requires certain assumptions about what is happening in the global economy generally.

The WHO Commission for Macroeconomics and Health presented the links between health and economics in terms of a virtuous cycle, better health as an input to (and outcome of) economic development, and argued that development funding should be mobilised to address diseases such as AIDS and malaria because these are so obviously barriers to economic development. It is unfortunate that the CMH did not undertake a more broadly based analysis of the links between economics and health.

Some areas of trade bear a closer (or at least more obvious) relationship to health than others, for example, TRIPS and GATS. However, in terms of impact on health it may be that the Agreement on Agriculture is the most significant.

In this topic we will explore the origins of the Bretton Woods Institutions, including the WTO with a particular focus on the role of the WTO. We will take an overview of the specific agreements which affect health, with a focus in particular on the Agreement on Agriculture.

Learning objectives

Participants will:

• develop their understanding of the origins, structures and procedures of the WTO and of its main agreements; and the politics of WTO decision making;
• develop their understanding of the range of bilateral and regional trade agreements and of the distribution of costs and benefits, both between and within participating countries;
• develop their understanding of the economics of global trade and how it affects the health chances of different populations;
• develop their skills in analysing and explaining trade issues and their relations to population health.

Presentations

Bretton Woods Family David Legge at Savar, Nov 2007

Trade regulation and public health (Lily Walkover at Atlanta, 2007)

Bretton Woods, trade and health.ppt (Sp) David Legge at Cuenca, July 2005

Readings

• Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
• Centrefor Policy Analysis on Trade and Health
• South Centre
• Amit Sen Gupta(2006). The WTO at the Cross Roads (The Marxist, 22(2-3))

Discussion questions

What is the role of health care activists in relation to political and economic issues such as trade?

Assignment topics

"Development assistance can only play a minor role in economic development compared with trade reform". Critically discuss this statement.

Other related topics

Acknowledgements

This topic developed by: David Legge, Ellen Shaffer, Lily Walkover, Amit Sen Gupta

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