حقوق تجارت بین الملل و سرمایه گذاری: چارچوبی جدید برای سلامت همگانی و ابزار رایج International trade and investment law: a new framework for public health and the common good

Background International trade and investment agreements (TIAs) affect global health, equity and justice – the common good. TIAs can have positive benefits but, from a range of health and social good perspectives, also have negative outcomes. This article focuses on ideas for change to such agreements and their institutional contexts, with the aim of achieving public health objectives. Because of this future focus, material in the following sections provides only a brief summary of why change is needed, and does not duplicate the growing literature on the problems for public health arising from TIAs. For this article, we define TIAs as those agreements relevant to trade, international investment, and international intellectual property law. We define the common good as those benefits that can be shared by all, ‘that promote the full flourishing of everyone in the community. … includes, but is not limited to, public goods’[1] p.161. International trade law governs trade in products and services; investment law covers assets; and intellectual property law has rules on what kinds of intellectual property can be protected and for how long. There is an array of TIAs in these areas, with multilateral agreements administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO), and other bilateral and regional agreements outside the WTO framework (often referred to in broad terms as free trade agreements – FTAs). Several interrelated trends have intensified the significance of TIAs and hence their health implications. Accelerated globalisation, involving developments in transportation, technology and communication, has resulted in the extended reach and complexity of global trade. The character of TIAs has become more comprehensive, with far-reaching implications for nation states. The focus has shifted from that of tariff reduction (although that remains important) to a wide range of measures affecting many aspects of products, services, and investment [2]. ‘Trade’ and ‘investment’ agreements are tending to merge as instruments of large-scale regional economic governance, [3] with the overall number of investment-related TIAs now over 3000 [4]. Current agreements in active development include the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership; in addition to the recently signed Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).