Health in all trade: Can we manage health and trade interests to reduce inequity?

There is increasing interest in the concept of “health in all policies” - at global, national and local levels. “Health in all policies” involves considering the health impacts of other sectors, but also recognising their contributions to health, and potential mutual gains, including reducing health inequities. Realising such synergies between trade and health policy, however, raises significant challenges. Negative health impacts from increased trade are easily identified - trade in goods that are harmful to health, tariff reductions reducing government income available for social spending, undermining of small-scale domestic agriculture and enterprise, and trade agreements resulting in reduced flexibility to prioritise access to health technologies. Such impacts have had increasing attention, along with the relative lack of influence that health agencies have to influence trade policy. However, there are also potential benefits to health and health equity from trade, mediated by the social determinants of health. Fair trade has the potential to raise incomes, empower communities and contribute to the equitable global distribution of power, money and resources. Yet these potential benefits have received much less attention in the trade and health discourse. Even less attempts have been made to quantify these benefits. This presentation discusses the challenges to managing the often conflicting interests of health equity and trade, suggests how new thinking on health in all policies could contribute to clearer understanding about available policy options, and considers prospects (and potential mechanisms) for progress on integrating health and trade policy to reduce health inequities.