Illegitimacy: Domestic Public Health Policymaking in the US-Australia FTA

Multinational corporations have long used trade agreements to create legislation which bypasses the normal democratic processes in various countries. In the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA, 2005), global drug companies inserted anti-public health provisions into the agreement which changed Australian law, despite the fact that similar legislation had been rebuffed in Australia's Parliament.

More ominously, the US Government demanded the insertion of language which overrides pending US legislation on importation of cheaper drugs from other countries such as Australia. Unlike the typical situation in which one country requests a legal change in the other, this example presents the spectacle of the US Executive Branch binding itself in the guise of a Free Trade Agreement, and doing so in a way which arguably blocks future Congressional legislation.

This presentation will highlight this and other illegitimate and non-transparent forms of public health policymaking through this particular abuse of Free Trade Agreements.