The WTO Ministerial Council meeting in Doha in 2001 recognised:

1. "the gravity of the public health problems afflicting many developing and least-developed countries, especially those resulting from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics.

2. We stress the need for the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) to be part of the wider national and international action to address these problems.

3. We recognize that intellectual property protection is important for the development of new medicines. We also recognize the concerns about its effects on prices.

4. We agree that the TRIPS Agreement does not and should not prevent members from taking measures to protect public health. …"

Full text at: http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/minist_e/min01_e/mindecl_trips_e.htm

Implications of GATS on health.

'The public health implications of world trade negotiations on the general agreement on trade in services and public services', Lancet 2003, 362, 1072-5. Pollock AM and D Price (2003)

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673603144194/fulltext

Implications of agriculture trade practices on poor farmers can be read at :

http://www.peoplesfoodsovereignty.org/statements/new%20statement/statement_01.htm

The text of the draft WHO resolution:

The Executive Board, having considered the report on international trade and health, (Document EB116/4) recommends to the Fifty-ninth World Health Assembly the adoption of the following resolution:
The Fifty-ninth World Health Assembly,
Recalling Resolutions WHA52.19, WHA53.14, WHA56.23, WHA56.27, WHA57.14, and WHA57.19;

Recognizing the demand for information about the possible implications of international trade and trade agreements for health at national, regional, and global levels;
Mindful of the need for ministers of health and their colleagues in ministries of trade, commerce, and finance to work together constructively in order to ensure that the interests of trade and of health are appropriately balanced,
URGES Member States:

1. to promote dialogue at national level to consider the interplay between international trade and health;

2. to adopt policies, laws, and regulations that address issues identified in that dialogue and take advantage of the potential opportunities, and mitigate the potential risks, that trade and trade agreements may have for health;

3. to create constructive and interactive relationships across the public and private sectors for the purpose of generating coherence in their trade and health policies;

4. to continue to develop capacity at national level to track and analyse the potential opportunities and risks of trade and trade agreements for health-sector performance and health outcomes;

REQUESTS the Director-General:
1. to provide support to Member States, at their request and in collaboration with the competent international organizations, to frame coherent trade and health policies;
2. to respond to Member States' requests for support of their efforts to build the capacity to understand the implications of international trade and trade agreements for health and to address relevant issues through policies and legislation that take advantage of the potential opportunities, and mitigate the potential risks, that trade and trade agreements may have for health;
3. to continue collaborating with the competent international organizations in order to support police coherence between trade and health sectors at regional and global levels and to foster the development of a global evidence base on the effects of international trade and trade agreements on health;
4. to report through the Executive Board to the Sixty-first World Health Assembly on progress made in implementing this resolution.

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