News

International business threat to health

The renowned Canadian public health expert Ronald Labonte has called for an international health non governmental organisation (NGO) to be set up to counteract a new big-business threat to public health worldwide.

Such a body, ‘or group of such NGOs’, is necessary to counter recent developments in international finance that are set to undermine the ability of nations to determine their own public health policy, he has warned.

The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), formed by OECD countries earlier this year, will allow international corporations to sue national governments for restricting international investment.

Under draft MAI provisions, traditional public health issues such as tobacco control could be undermined. Governments could be prevented from opposing the licencing of toxic waste sites, and the MAI could make it more difficult for governments to fund social programmes or redistribute wealth.

‘This is the first time any international agreement effectively elevates private corporations to the same status as nations,’ Labonte said in Health Promotion International.(1998 13 (3):245-256.)

An international health NGO is needed to lobby whatever regulatory body assumes responsibility for the MAI and to ‘establish healthy public policies (social clauses) within current and future world trade/investment agreements’, he added.

Labonte’s call for a strong NGO presence at the MAI has been supported by in the UK by Association for Public Health chief executive Donald Reid.

‘The impact of MAI will mean, for example, that we won’t be able to stop the import into the UK of US cattle that have been fed growth hormones,’ he said. ‘It will mean that you can’t stop developments simply because of health considerations.’

Meanwhile, in her first major policy address since taking office in July, WHO director general Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, has called on paediatricians worldwide to press governments into targeting child health as their main priority.

Children worldwide were vulnerable to a ‘vicious cycle of poverty and ill-health,’ she said. ‘The poor are five times more likely to die before the age of five, and malnutrition underlies more than 50 per cent of all childhood deaths.’

Dr Brundtland also pointed to the responsibility of tobacco-producing nations. ‘Today, 3.5m people die from tobacco every year, and that number is likely to grow to close to 10m by 2020, making tobacco the single largest global burden of disease. It is estimated that up to 250m of today’s children will die of smoking-related diseases if current trends continue.

‘Most adult smokers start smoking before the age of 18. The industry knows it and acts accordingly in its marketing strategies.’

As healthmatters went to press, the MAI was coming under threat from the unlikeliest of sources. The French government was threatening to withdraw from the agreement unless its film industry could be protected from Hollywood blockbusters. Socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin said: ‘States must remain the principal players in internatonal life.’

.

Any UK public health or health promotion organisations willing to advance work on an MAI project should write to: Ronald Labonte, 29 Jorene Drive, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7M 3XY.