World Trade Organization

The policies of World Trade Organisation, one of the recent international institutions, have generated heated debates world over, especially in the developing countries. Established in 1995, the WTO purpose was to form an international forum for trade negotiations among different nations.

However with the passage of time its policies and credibility were questioned, and criticised severely. It is blamed that its decisions and policies are overwhelmed by the concerns of developed countries, manipulating the organisation’s policies since its inception.

In the past few years we have witnessed global protests against WTO policies, accused of being biased, unfair and exploitative.
Health is one of the vulnerable sectors directly affected by any change in international trade policies. Concerns about the effects of WTO’s policies and agreements on health sector have grown among the civil society organisations in the developing countries where most of the people do not enjoy assistance from their governments in the form of medical or social schemes.

A study by the World Health Organisation and the WTO -- "WTO Agreements and Public Health" -- may be regarded as an effort to jointly see and understand WTO rules about health sector.
A team of highly professional individuals comprising Nick Drager, Robert Beaglehole and Debra Lipson, and Dr Zafar Mirza from Pakistan has prepared the report.

It is aimed at illustrating the linkages between relevant WTO agreements on health to make trade and health officials better understand, and monitor the effect of these linkages.
The report discusses four WTO agreements: Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS), Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and Trade in Services (GATS).

It explains in detail relationship between trade rules and the health issues: infectious disease control, food safety, tobacco, environment, access to drugs, health services, food security and nutrition, and emerging issues (such as biotechnology).
Except for food safety, the WTO did not have specific agreements on other health issues, though they have been touched by various clauses in the four agreements.

The most important section of the report is where proposals are discussed for enhancing policy coherence between health and trade at the national and international level.
In the same section opportunities for coherence between health and trade have also been discussed.

It begins with the declaration: "There is a common ground between health and trade, and between the objectives of the WHO and the WTO." The statement brings the WHO into sharp focus. Can it afford to be same as WTO is thought of by the developing countries, which look at its agreements skeptically?

WTO’s indifference to their interests and indigenous cultures, industries and products while forming trade policies is no more a secret. It gives least importance to protests and stances of the civil society organisations from the developing countries while forming its policies.

It forces its member countries to mould their national trade policies in accordance with its key principles like "most-favored-nation (MFN)" and "national treatment" (treating foreigners and locals equally).
WTO rules assure multi national companies (MNSc) successful businesses in the markets of developing countries, threatening the industries of the developing countries, which due to lack of resources can not compete with the resourceful MNCs, not even in their own home markets.
Trade liberalisation is not a bad thing and not a hurdle in the way of sustainable development but as a developing nation we have seen it work other way around.

WTO needs to do much more and become more transparent in its policies to quell the developing countries fears about its policies.
The report’s objective, also made clear in the introductory note, is to provide basic information about health related clauses in the WTO agreements. It gives critical insight into the issues related to international trade and health, and the role of WTO and WHO. It is a comprehensive reference work, an effort that helps to understand WTO agreements on health and gives insight into the common grounds where these two influential international platforms can be met for the sake of making the world better and healthy.