An Analysis of the World Trade Organization and Public Health

This essay delves into the intricate relationship between the World Trade Organization (WTO) and public health. It begins by introducing the WTO, its functions, and the criticisms it faces regarding its prioritization of trade over humanitarian and health objectives. The essay argues for the reform of WTO regulations to better address public health concerns, acknowledging the organization's existing policies while highlighting the need for improvement. It discusses the WTO's agreements on food safety, pharmaceutical patents, and technical trade barriers, emphasizing their role in safeguarding public health. Furthermore, the essay addresses the evolving global landscape, including the rise of emerging economies and the shifting balance of power, advocating for their full inclusion in the WTO to reduce the influence of the U.S. and to facilitate the addressing of emerging health issues such as the transboundary transfer of hazardous chemicals. The conclusion reiterates the importance of the WTO and the necessity of reforming its regulations to protect global health effectively.

Running Head: WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION AND PUBLIC HEALTH
World Trade Organization and public health
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World Trade Organization and public health
Introduction
The World Trade Organization (WTO) was created on January 1, 1995, and is considered
as the most powerful trade body in the globe. The organization has 133 member countries as well
as 33 countries with the status of observers who have applied for the membership. The World
Trade Organization on behalf of its members promotes, adjudicates, and monitors the global
trade to establish and create a free trading system (Barlow, Labonte, McKee & Stuckler, 2018).
WTO covers every area of social and economic endeavors including agriculture,
telecommunications, government purchases, food sanitation regulations, industrial standards,
clothing, intellectual property, and banking. A normally-heard accusation is that the World Trade
Organization system treats trade as a sole priority, usually at the expense of the humanitarian,
public health and environmental objectives. I want to join in the discussion and state that even
though this narrative and accusation is untrue, WTO regulations must be reformed to improve
public and population health.
It should be noted that trade can never be more vital than protecting and conserving the
environment or improving the quality of life. The WTO has explicitly addressed public health
through relevant health policies. For instance, the pharmaceutical patents ensure that inventors
rights are protected as well as allows the government room to offer affordable treatments (Abbas,
& Riaz, 2018). The world property organization, the WTO and the world health organization
have collaborated to enhance the knowledge of how to make policies and patenting work
effectively in the interest of the public and population health. There has been questioning and
concern on whether traded goods are healthy and safe. WTO created an agreement on animal and
plant health and food safety, and it deals with the with the country’s action on chemicals and
contaminants on food as well as the spread of diseases. An agreement by WTO on technical
trade barriers have been reached that covers issues like food labeling. This is important as it
reduces food poising and the transfer of poisonous foods in different member countries. The
WTO agreement blatantly offers governments the right to encourage trade from achieving public
health objectives, yet the measures and regulations applied must be supported evidence. The
WTO also recognizes the food safety guidelines, standards, and recommendations created by
world health organization, food, and agriculture organization Codex Alimentarius.
Even though WTO has created public health policies that are aimed at protecting the
environment and health of every human being, it must reform its policies to improve the public
health (Scott & Harman, 2013). There are numerous reasons which provide an avenue for
institutional reforms of the WTO especially public health policies. The world is in a
transformational period as there are rapidly emerging economies like Brazil, India, and China
which have shifted the world power balance and powerful influence of the U.S. as a hegemonic
power is reducing. The U.S. and Great Britain established the present architect of the global
system in the 1940s, yet the world needs of the world, as well as the power balance, have also
shifted. Thus, it is important that the emerging economies be included at the fully at the WTO or
they may form their alliance in the future. The inclusion of the emerging economies at the WTO
will reduce the veto power which the U.S. has enjoyed over the years and which has been viewed

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as ‘fighting’ significant global policies including public health policies. There is a need to reform
its regulations in public health to tackle emerging health concerns like transboundary transfer of
hazardous chemicals. WTO should collaborate with the Basel convention to tackle this problem
(Holman, Francis & Gray, 2017).
Conclusion
WTO is an important global organization that regulates world trade and also collaborate
with other global organizations like WHO to come up with relevant public health policies.
However, there is a need to reform is regulations especially on the membership to tackle the
emerging world problems in health.

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References
Abbas, M. Z., & Riaz, S. (2018). WTO “Paragraph 6” system for affordable access to medicines:
Relief or regulatory ritualism? Journal of World Intellectual Property, 21(1/2), 32–51.
https://doi.org/10.1111/jwip.12083
Barlow, P., Labonte, R., McKee, M., & Stuckler, D. (2018). Trade challenges at the World
Trade Organization to national noncommunicable disease prevention policies: A
thematic document analysis of trade and health policy space. PLoS Medicine, 15(6), 1–
18. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002590
Holman, E., Francis, R., & Gray, G. (2017). Part II: Quantitative Evaluation of Choices Used in
Setting Noncancer Chronic Human Health Reference Values Across Organizations. Risk
Analysis: An International Journal, 37(5), 879–892. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12699
Scott, J., & Harman, S. (2013). Beyond trips: Why the wto ‘s Doha Round is unhealthy. Third
World Quarterly, 34(8), 1361–1376. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2013.831539