International Agencies and Health Case Study 2022

Running head: INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES AND HEALTH
International agencies and health
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INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES AND HEALTH
(Q1) WTO treaties and describe their impact on global health
Over the period of time, the entire world has become more integrated than ever before
and this has made different policies to be difficult to be handled independently in different
sectors of the economy. For instance, in the areas of health and trade, there have been a huge
linkage which led to a number of debates with the institutions concerns. This has led to
formation of different treaties between the trade organization and health sector to better the
living standards of the population of the country in concern.
WTO treaties
There are two major WTO treaties, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
1947-1995 and Uruguay Round. The GATT focuses mainly on the reduction of the tariffs on
different goods while on the other hand, Uruguay Round main objectives are; increased
market access to goods and services, elimination of the taxes, and expansion of the world
trade. It, in turn, established the rules on the IP, services, goods, and dispute settlement.
Impact of WTO Treaties on Global Health
The WTO focusses on the non-tariff barriers in the relation to trade on the other hand
GATT look at the tariff reduction. For the protection of the health-related issues to the
humans in different areas requires immediate action by the state and mostly the state actions
in such matters in the market (Hein and Moon 2013). However, the freedom to take such
public health action is constrained by the rules governing the global trade (Hein and Moon
2013).
The overall nature of the WTO agreements is a significant reason why they attract the
attention of scholars and the practitioners for the global health governance (Hein and Moon
2013). WTO has so far had an enormous significant implication for the policymaking in the
public health in the major areas of the WTO rules: Goods, Intellectual property, and Services.
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INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES AND HEALTH
For goods, concerns regarding the potential GATT (1994) and Agreement on the
Phytosanitary and Sanitary Measures (PSS) for the aim of restriction of the national efforts in
regards to regulation of goods which may be hazardous to someone's health. According to
WTO, a balance between members to ensure protection on health and allow smooth
movement of goods across the international borders.
The movement of goods is done by providing the adoption of legal measures for the
protection of food safety, plant, and animal health while taking into consideration all the
standards are not applied unnecessarily for protectionist purposes. It can be achieved by
enforcing the trade restrictions as justified by the scientific evidence (Reichman, 2009).
Hormones growth in beef produced in the United States and Canada
In the year 1996 is when the first test arose in the United States to challenge the
European Union on the ban of the importation of the beef in Canada and the United States
with certain growth hormones. This case is seen as the initial test on how the new WTO can
handle the conflict which arises between the international trade rules and the national public
health policymaking, with the application of the EU principles on the ban of harmful food
products into the markets. Different governments argue that there are some precautions to be
taken in the regulation of certain food items into the markets for the benefits of the entire
population.
The Appellate of the WTO, therefore, makes some decision of the WTO by saying
that, the EU was unable to provide adequate information on the hormones which were
harmful to human health. This situation led to the submission of retaliatory tariffs by the EU
to WTO on goods in Canadian and US markets. In the service delivery, several questions
have arisen on the effect of GATS on the privatization of medical tourism, the provision of
health insurance, and the migration of the health workers. According to Reitz 1996, the
liberalization of the health sector has been limited to data of varying quality, date, and the
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INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES AND HEALTH
negotiations for the further liberalization of certain products. For the health service provision,
the liberalization is made by the government to allow for the privatization of the health
services, which in turn led to potential benefits and risks to societies (Barton et al, 2008).
The foreign providers will, therefore, accelerate the level of competition among the
health service providers, accessibility and transfer of new technologies and knowledge, more
supply in the case of shortages, and the economic growth in the health sector.
For instance, in Southeast Asia, where there is a high level of liberalization in health services,
medical tourism has led to the generation of vast amounts of revenue to the economy but also
resulted in the brain drain of the trained specialist (Kanchanachitra et al. 2011).
(Q2) World Bank's efficiency and equity blended approach in Costa Rica's health sector
policy and reform.
For an extended period, the International financial institution has been the central
factor for the diffusion of neoliberal ideas in the health sector and trade in Latin America.
Little has been published on the World Bank participation for the transforming the health
sector policies in Costa Rica and other parts of Latin America. The World Bank has carried
out different projects to transform the health reform policies in Costa Rica between the years
1980 to 2005. The overall reforms in the Costa Rica health sector include the ideas of
government participation in the health sector, focus on main health care, the relationship of
the Costa Rican ministry of health and social security system as a whole.
The World Bank and the Costa Rica government have a significant concern on
different issues that can be done to improve the efficiency of the health care reform policy.
World Bank has tried to achieve the goals of equity and efficiency in the health care system
by decentralization and de-concentration, function separation within different institutions,
and privatization in different areas within the health care system (Reichman, 2009). After
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