Regional trade agreements: Maximising benefits for nutrition, food security, human health, and the economy

Trade poses risks and opportunities to public health and health equity. This paper presents the food-related health risks of a radical new kind of trade agreement: the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP). Under negotiation since 2010, the TPP involves Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam. Similar to other recent bilateral or regional trade agreements, the TPP proposes tariffs reductions, capital account and foreign investment liberalisation and intellectual property protection that extend beyond provisions in the multilateral World Trade Organization agreements. The TPP is also likely to include proposals for stronger investor protections, which would enable greater industry involvement in policymaking and new avenues for appeal. Transnational food corporations would be able to sue governments for introducing health policies that they claim violate their privileges in the TPP. Hence, the TPP, emblematic of a new generation of 21st century trade policy, could yield greater potential risks to health than prior trade agreements. Because the text of the TPP is secret until the countries involved commit to the agreement, it is essential for public health concerns to be articulated during the negotiation process. Unless the potential health consequences of each part of the text are fully examined and taken into account, and binding language is incorporated in the TPP to safeguard regulatory policy space for health, the TPP will be detrimental to public health nutrition. Public health nutrition advocates and health-related policymakers must be proactive in their engagement with the trade negotiations.