The European Journal of Public Health
Volume 24 Issue 2 April 2014
http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/content/current
Editorials
Public health and the Transatlantic trade and investment partnership
Holly Jarman
Department of Health Management and Policy/Center for Law, Ethics, and Health, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Correspondence: Holly Jarman, SPH II, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2029. Tel: +1-734-647-9225, Fax: +1-734-764-4338, e-mail: hjarman@umich.edu
http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/content/24/2/181.extract
Extract
What would you do for an extra €120 billion a year? That’s an extra 0.5 % GDP across the European Union (EU), or an extra €545 per household per year.1 If you are a European politician facing poor economic conditions, you might be tempted by an international agreement that promises growth, political capital and campaign finance contributions—all with minimal pain. The EU is currently negotiating such an agreement with the United States: the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Public health advocates should be wary of TTIP, which carries the risk that important public health protections and principles—from access to essential medicines and medical procedures to tobacco control, food and medical device regulation—could be hampered in exchange for the promise of economic gains. To call TTIP a ‘trade deal’ is to ignore some of its most important features with big consequences for health: regulatory convergence, measures allowing foreign investors to sue governments and strong intellectual …