Bridging the divide: global governance of trade and health
Author(s)/Editor(s): Lee K, Sridhar D, Patel M1
Journal: The Lancet
Publication date: Volume 373, Issue 9661, 31 January 2009-6 February 2009
Number of pages: 79
Language: English
Overview
This is the second in a series of six papers on trade and health.
The main institutions responsible for governing international trade and health—the World Trade Organization (WTO), which replaced the General Agreement on Tariff s and Trade (GATT) in 1995, and WHO—were established after World War 2. For many decades the two institutions operated in isolation, with little cooperation between them.
The growth and expansion of world trade over the past half century amid economic globalisation, and the increased importance of health issues to the functioning of a more interconnected world, brings the two domains closer together on a broad range of issues. Foremost is the capacity of each to govern their respective domains, and their ability to cooperate in tackling issues that lie at the intersection of trade and health. This paper discusses how the governance of these two areas relate to one another, and how well existing institutions work together.
1 Centre on Global Change and Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK (K Lee DPhil); and All Souls College, Department of Politics and International Relations (D Sridhar DPhil) and Department of International Development (M Patel MPhil), University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.