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Free trade can seriously damage your health
27-May-2019 Red Pepper
These practises open the door to Big Pharma companies and disastrous private health companies.
USMCA (NAFTA 2.0): tightening the constraints on the right to regulate for public health
15-May-2019 Globalization and Health
Rather than enhancing public health protection the USMCA places new, extended, and enforceable obligations on public regulators that increase the power of corporate interests during the development of new regulations.
Aborted for-profit hospital
18-Apr-2019 Korea Times
The Jeju provincial government has revoked the business license of a Chinese-owned for-profit hospital. The Chinese group may file a suit against the Korean government, using the investor-state dispute settlement system.
Will free trade make Africans sick?
16-Apr-2019 Project Syndicate
African governments must act immediately to address the AfCFTA’s potential negative implications for Africans’ health.
Media release: Philip Morris paying only half of Australia’s costs in ISDS case is outrageous, says AFTINET
22-Mar-2019 AFTINET
It has taken a second FOI case and another two years to reveal that Australian taxpayers were only awarded half of the costs of defending Australia’s tobacco plain packaging laws against tobacco giant Philip Morris in March 2017.
Investment protection proposals under RCEP threaten India’s pharma industry
15-Mar-2019 The Wire
Free trade agreements like the RCEP will infringe on India’s intellectual property laws. India must stand its ground in the interest of public health.
US ambassador defends farming record on chicken and beef
7-Mar-2019 BBC
The UK should accept American meat as part of a post-Brexit trade deal, says US ambassador to the UK .
Korea`s first for-profit hospital in Jeju faces license revocation
5-Mar-2019 Pulse
The Korea government may face another investor-state dispute case from the Chinese capital if the license is called off.
More than 70 US health, consumer and other groups demand elimination of NAFTA 2.0 terms that would lock in high US medicine prices
22-Jan-2019 Public Citizen
In a letter to Congress, the groups demand that the pact’s giveaways to Big Pharma that would keep medicines unaffordable be removed before the pact is sent to Congress.
We can’t afford to let the new NAFTA drive up drug prices
14-Jan-2019 Chicago Tribune
NAFTA 2.0 would effectively tie the US Congress’ hands in the struggle against rising drug prices.
NAFTA 2.0: US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Chapter 20: pharmaceutical related patent provisions
5-Dec-2018 Public Citizen
The Intellectual Property Chapter of the revised NAFTA, rebranded by the Trump Administration USMCA, includes provisions that threaten to undermine critical efforts to­wards affordable health care and medicine.
Indonesia and RCEP: Beware the public health risks
26-Nov-2018 The Diplomat
Proposals from Japan and South Korea would require patent law changes in several RCEP countries, including Indonesia.
PHA4: Neoliberal policies and corporate takeover are the cause of the world health crisis
19-Nov-2018 Peoples Dispatch
Multinational corporations are suing countries for using generic versions of life saving medicines.
Statement of opposition to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership at the 4th global people’s health assembly, Savar Bangladesh, 15-19 November
19-Nov-2018
We condemn the secretly negotiated Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) which will erode people’s sovereignty and undermine health equity.
Slovakia does not have to compensate the Union private health insurer
9-Nov-2018 Slovak Spectator
The German Supreme Court dismissed the original arbitration decision against Slovakia concerning the ban on health-insurance companies’ profits.
Drugs costs impact health
8-Nov-2018 The Guardian.pe.ca
Canada’s negotiators extended data protection on biologics without knowing impact on prices.
Liz Truss slams regulations in speech to US think tank backing environmental roll-back after Brexit
21-Sep-2018 Unearthed
Treasury minister was speaking on the same day the Cato Institute called for softer environmental rules and NHS competition.
Japan to accept more caregivers from three Southeastern Asian countries
20-Aug-2018 Bangkok Post
Japan is planning to accept a greater number of caregivers from three Southeastern Asian countries having bilateral free trade agreements with Tokyo as part of efforts to address a labour shortage in the country.
Food for Thought: Weighing up health and investment in the age of the new pandemic
3-Jul-2018 IISD
A potential collision course between trade and investment agreements and public health measures could impact countries’ regulations of unhealthy food and drinks.
Revealed: $39m cost of defending Australia’s tobacco plain packaging laws
2-Jul-2018 The Guardian
Two years after an FOI claim was lodged, the price of the six-year fight with Philip Morris has been revealed