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Report: US free trade pact means junk food for developing nations
15-Nov-2019 The St Kitts & Nevis Observer
The US is exporting ever-more processed foods, as well as meat, to the region, while making it harder for farmers there to supply healthy foods for the local market.
The NHS will be part of any post-Brexit US free trade deal—here’s why
8-Nov-2019 The London Economic
“Free trade” deals are often a cover for privatising public services and US negotiating texts already mention British drug and tech companies.
New AFTINET fact sheet: The impact of trade and investment rules on public health
30-Oct-2019 AFTINET
Trading away our health: How trade and investment rules put corporate rights ahead of public health.
US, India keen to wrap up trade deal
18-Sep-2019 The Hindu
Both countries are frantically working on ways to resolve long-disputed trade issues, especially relating to medical devices, agriculture, and e-commerce.
US farmers’ group says pharma, not dairy, is main obstacle to ratifying USMCA
11-Sep-2019 CityNews
The National Farmers Union says the new deal’s extended patent protection for new pharmaceuticals must be reduced so that less expensive generic versions of new drugs can be available to consumers sooner.
UK health service not on the table in US trade talks: Johnson
6-Sep-2019 Reuters
Prime Minister Boris Johnson told visiting US Vice President that Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) would not be included in negotiations with the United States for a trade deal.
Here’s how we need to protect our NHS from any future US/UK trade deal
3-Sep-2019 Open Democracy
Boris Johnson is promising new legislation to ’help the NHS’. But the danger is it will just gift wrap it for US corporations. Campaigners are uniting to say #HandsOffOurNHS and to call on MPs to really protect it.
Author discusses ‘monstrous’ prospects for NHS after no-deal Brexit
7-Aug-2019 The Canary
US president Donald Trump stood next to outgoing-PM Theresa May and insisted the NHS would be “on the table” in any trade deal.
Trade negotiations and the triple trouble for health and the NHS
18-Jul-2019 Open Democracy
On Monday, the British parliament will debate whether the NHS should be included in US trade talks. Here’s how to decode the reassuring words we’ll no doubt hear from government.
Tobacco as an ‘offensive interest’ in trade talks? The role of rules of origin
3-Jun-2019 EPHA
Beyond ISDS, another potential trade policy issue lurks in the background and which has not yet captured the attention of the health policy community: rules of origin in trade agreements.
Tobacco and trade: an unhealthy and harmful marriage
3-Jun-2019 EPHA
The tobacco industry has a long history of using international trade deals to force their products into new markets.
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.