Our Section was one of the three founding sections of the APHA “Trade and Health Forum” established five years ago as a cross-sectional effort to protect public health in global trade and investment treaties. 

Public health issues – including workplace health and safety – have been systemically left out of trade agreements, as seen in the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement and all those that have followed. The treaties have been used to force countries in the developing world to open their economies to global corporations that owe loyalty to nothing other than maximum corporate profits. 

The result has been the destruction of agriculture in Mexico with the flood of government-subsidized grains by U.S.-based transnational corporations; restrictions on the production of low-cost generic drugs which has caused thousands of preventable deaths of Central American and Asian HIV/AIDS patients; and a “race to the bottom” in terms of factory working conditions as each impoverished country tries to outbid others in enticing foreign investment in their increasingly unregulated and “zero enforcement” workplaces.

Public health advocates hoped that the change in administration from George Bush to Barack Obama would bring changes in trade policies and the treaties that govern it.  However, all signals coming from the Obama government indicate another area of continuity, not change, with its predecessor.  But Obama’s policies are not yet fixed, so the opportunity exists to push for a health-protective approach and democratic procedures in writing the trade and investment treaties.

One of the most important goals is establishing representation of public health professionals in the various advisory committees and bureaucratic structures where trade policy is actually set.  Unsurprisingly, these committees are currently dominated by the industries affected by the treaties, and there are literally no public health reps on any of them. 

So, for example, the “Tobacco Control Advisory Committee” has a heavy presence of tobacco companies, the “Pharmaceuticals Advisory Committee” is dominated by Big Pharm, and the “Agricultural Advisory Committee” is blessed with numerous reps from Monsanto, Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland.

For several years, the San Francisco-based Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health (CPATH) has generated excellent reports and coordinated efforts for legislation to require the appointment of public health representatives on all trade committees, as well as a stand-alone “Public Health Advisory Committee” that could have influence on the terms of all treaties.

For those interested in all the ins-and-outs of these years-long effort and all the policy analysis related to public health and trade, CPATH’s website (www.cpath.org) is the place to go. 

Currently there are several important initiatives to move the public health representation issue forward as the Obama government is beginning to focus on trade issues. Please check the CPATH website for all the details.

There will be several trade-related events at the APHA conference in Denver in November that OHS Section members should try to attend.  I have been honored to represent the Section in the Trade and Health Forum, but there is a lot to be done and more hands are always welcome.

The events in November include:

Anyone interested in the Trade and Health Forum, and our Section’s work in it, should contact me for information at garrettdbrown@comcast.net. 

- Garrett Brown