The legitimate role of the WHO in relation to trade and health is at risk. 

A draft resolution committing WHO to a more active analysis, research and education role in relation to trade and health was tabled at the WHO Executive Board in late May 2005.

A decision on the resolution was deferred following opposition by the US and an attempt to water it down by Australia. 

Now is the time for people and organizations who are concerned about the implications of trade for health to mobilize nationally and globally in support of the draft resolution.

The People’s Health Movement calls upon organizations, individuals and networks to inform their governments and WHO representatives of the importance of this resolution and to press them to support it. 

The WHO must accept its responsibilities in researching and documenting the risks to health (and opportunities for health improvement) associated with the current global trade regime and with proposals to reform this regime.

The WHO must also accept its responsibilities to assist national policy makers (in both the health and trade sectors) to identify the local implications for population health of the current trade regime and of trade reform proposals and to identify the directions for trade reform which will promote the health of their people.

The implications of the TRIPS Agreement with respect to access to pharmaceuticals are well known. (more) 

The implications of the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) for health care have also been extensively commented upon. (more)

However, the Agreement which has had the most devastating impact on the health of people in developing countries is the Agreement on Agriculture which sanctions high levels of European protection and US dumping which deny markets and depress prices for small farmers in developing countries. 

Escalation of rural and urban poverty, displacement of larger numbers of people, malnutrition, drug abuse, increase in violence and HIV can all be attributed in varying degrees to unfair trade in agriculture. In several instances the poor farmers have been pauperized to the extent that it has resulted in a rise in suicide rates amongst poor farmers. (more)

Meanwhile the rich countries are pushing for greater access to developing country markets for agricultural commodities as well as manufactured goods.  For many countries these pressures carry the risk of deindustrialization and further impoverishment.

Meanwhile policies of export development rather than food self-sufficiency imposed by the IMF and World Bank have contributed to the food crisis in many countries.  Poor countries have been encouraged (or forced) to enter the export market for products such as coffee, greatly expanding production with the predictable consequences of glut and low prices. These serve the interests of the multinationals and the rich world consumers but leave poor countries much worse off. 

No longer self sufficient in food, they are facing saturated markets and falling prices.  These dynamics shape the conditions for malnutrition and the spread of AIDS HIV in many affected countries.

The WHO has a historic duty to study and monitor the impact of trade on health and to advise national governments and peoples.

1>2>3