Trade And Health

Health ministries around the world face a new challenge: to assess the risks and respond to the opportunities of the increasing openness in health services under the World Trade Organization's (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). 'International Trade in Health Services and the GATS' addresses this challenge head-on by providing analytical tools to policymakers in health and trade ministries alike who are involved in the liberalization agenda and, specifically, in the GATS negotiations. This book informs and assists policymakers in formulating trade policy and negotiating internationally. There is ongoing and animated international debate about the impact of GATS on public services in general and health in particular. In response, the book offers different perspectives from more than 15 leading experts. Some of the authors stress opportunities linked to trade in health services, others focus more on the risks. The book offers: Detailed legal analysis of the impact of the agreement on health policy An overview of trade commitments in health-related services New empirical evidence from nine country studies A simple 10-step explanation on how to deal with GATS negotiations. 'International Trade in Health Services and the GATS' is a must-have resource for policymakers and other practitioners working in the trade and health sectors.

Integrating health objectives and international trade policies.

The need for policy coherence between trade and health has never been greater, yet few public health workers are equipped to navigate this complex field. This book aims to fill this gap, providing a focused and readable introduction to the topic. It introduces the principles underpinning trade treaties and examines the implications of trade rules for health services and access to medicines, unhealthy commodities, labour rights and the environment. It explores the trade policy making process, methods for trade and health research, and recommendations for strengthening policy coherence.

Once exports and imports meant agriculture and industry. Today, in the global economy and the electronic age, trade is also expanding into the service sector. This timely book closely examines trade in health. Professor David Reisman offers a comprehen

"Health and trade have long been interconnected. The increasing trade of medical products and of health-related services provides many opportunities for improving people's lives worldwide. However, the deepened liberalization of trade has also posed new challenges to national health authorities. National health authorities are confronted with heightened trade in harmful products impacting nutrition habits and associated rise in non-communicable diseases, increased movement of health personnel, medical tourism, and higher levels of intellectual property protection impacting medicine prices. Trade and Health: Towards building a national strategy provides useful background information for policy-makers to formulate a coherent national response to trade and health-related issues. With free trade agreements being negotiated continuously, often without sufficient involvement of health experts, the core evidence presented in this book can enable health policy-makers to engage, where health and trade linkages occur, to protect health and thus strike a balance between public health and the further liberalization of global trade."--Page 4 of cover.

The global shift towards overweight and obese populations has ledto a significant rise in diet-related chronic illness. This bookexamines the role global food trade has played in that shift,looking carefully at how the trade of food across national borders,international and regional trade agreements, the process of tradeand investment liberalization, and the growth of transnational foodcorporations affects what people eat and, by implication, theirhealth. An international team of editors has brought together aprestigious group of contributors who present a critical analysisof the linkages between trade, food and diet in different domains.Between them, the multidisciplinary group present a balancedperspective on the opportunities and risks trade poses for dietarytrends and offer a practical analysis of the policy optionsavailable to address this growing global concern. An international multidisciplinary team of authors Detailed look at the issues followed by practical policyanalysis A comprehensive review of an important global issue Academics, researchers and practitioners in the field of publichealth, especially those concerned with nutrition, obesity andchronic disease, will find this book an enlightening andfascinating read. Social scientists, policy makers, trade analystsand food industry professionals will equally gain much from thisinnovative approach to the subject.

Developing countries comprise the majority of the membership of the World Trade Organization. Many developing countries believe that the welfare gains that were supposed to ensue from the establishment of the WTO and the results of the Uruguay Round remain largely elusive. Though often aggregated under the ubiquitous banner “developing countries,” their multilateral trade objectives -- like their underlying policy interests and the concerns -- vary considerably from country to country and are by no means homogenous. Coming off the heels of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the ongoing Doha Development Round, launched in that Middle Eastern city in the fall of 2001 and now on “life support” so to speak, was inaugurated with much fanfare as a means of addressing the difficulties that developing countries face within the multilateral trading system. Special and differential treatment provisions in the WTO agreement in particular are the focus of much discussion in the ongoing round, and voices for change have been multiplying, due to widespread dissatisfaction with their effectiveness, enforceability, and implementation.

Around the world, policymakers and civil society are debating how economic and trade policies shape public health. This edited collection adds a new dimension to this debate. It synthesizes research from a variety of disciplines to analyse how the liberalization of international trade affects reproductive health and rights. Case studies from Mexico, Sri Lanka, China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Egypt illuminate how trade-related changes in women’s employment influence their reproductive needs and capacities. The book demonstrates how global and national trade policies affect the quality, quantity, and cost of reproductive health services. Contributors also explore the implications of the World Trade Organization and the various trade agreements under its purview for reproductive health services and rights. Ultimately, this collection addresses the key policy issues for advocates of both reproductive health and rights and economic justice, and shows how trade agreements weighted against the poor in the South have very specific gendered consequences. This book is aimed at an inter-disciplinary audience of economists, public health professionals, demographers, sociologists, anthropologists, and women’s studies specialists. It will also be of interest to policymakers and representatives of civil society organizations working on health, economic justice, and employment issues.