Photo: Protesters concerned about the TPP effect on health gather in Atlanta, Georgia. Credit.
by Ronald Labonté, Ashley Schram, Arne Ruckert
Negotiations surrounding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade and investment agreement have recently concluded. Although trade and investment agreements, part of a broader shift to global economic integration, have been argued to be vital to improved economic growth, health, and general welfare, these agreements have increasingly come under scrutiny for their direct and indirect health impacts.
Adverse impacts of the Trans Pacific Partnership on public health have been well documented but how might the pact affect regional and global economies? A new report “Trading Down: Unemployment, Inequality and Other Risks of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement,” on the Trans Pacific Partnership by investigators at Tufts University asks that question. It concludes that “the benefits to economic growth are even smaller than those projected with full-employment models, and are negative for Japan and the United States. More important, we find that the TPP will likely lead to losses in employment and increases in inequality.”
Ellen R. Shaffer, Joseph E. Brenner Nov. 6, 2015 Cross-posted from CPATH
The vacuous “tobacco control” provision in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) virtually capitulates to the demands of multinational tobacco corporations, jeopardizing nations’ health and economic welfare. Public health and medical advocates in the U.S. and abroad consistently urged negotiators to exclude tobacco control protections from trade challenges under the TPP. But tobacco industry opposition won the day, bolstered by corporate allies concerned that addressing the uniquely lethal effects of tobacco in trade agreements could set a precedent for reining in their own practices.
Reuters reports that leaders of India’s $15 billion pharmaceuticals industry, a major supplier of affordable generics to the world, have joined public health activists in criticizing a new U.S.-led trade deal they say will delay the arrival of new cheap drugs. Industry executives said provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal struck earlier this month between 12 nations that shield new drug data from competitors would hurt their business in those nations.
Statement of Matthew L. Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
The nations of the Trans Pacific Partnership (credit)
As they complete negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, the United States and the 11 other countries involved must ensure the final agreement protects the right of participating nations to adopt public health measures to reduce tobacco use and prevents tobacco companies from using the TPP to attack such measures.
Corporations and Health Watch 