International Trade Governance

Abstract

Abstract This chapter, “International Trade Governance,” examines how international trade governance has impacted global health and how global health advocates have challenged international trade law. The 1995 creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) expanded global governance over the trade of goods, services, and intellectual property rights, with the result that states have often seen their health regulations subverted to trade imperatives. This international trade system has constrained government public health authority to regulate harmful products in international commerce, with states and corporations enforcing these free trade imperatives through the WTO’s binding dispute settlement system. The WTO has extended its binding influence over global health through a range of international trade agreements, with this impact exemplified by the influence of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) on access to medicines. Human rights campaigns against the TRIPS Agreement have achieved some concessions in trade governance, but they have not significantly ameliorated international trade law—within or beyond the WTO. Despite hard won diplomatic concessions to ensure access to underlying determinants of health, it remains unclear whether ongoing changes to international trade governance can effectively respond to the deleterious impacts of the international trade regime on global health.