Just Say No to the TPP: A Democratic Setback for American and Asian Public Health

Muntaner, Carles; Mahabir, Deb Finn

Abstract

The article by Labonte, Schram, and Ruckert is a significant and timely analysis of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) policy and the severe threats to public health that it implies for 12 Pacific Rim populations from the Americas and Asia (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam). With careful and analytic precision the authors convincingly unearth many aspects of this piece of legislation that undermine the public health achievements of most countries involved in the TTP. Our comments complement their policy analysis with the aim of providing a positive heuristic tool to assist in the understanding of the TPP, and other upcoming treaties like the even more encompassing Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and in so doing motivate the public health community to oppose the implementation of the relevant provisions of the agreements. The aims of this commentary on the study of Labonte et al are to show that an understanding of the health effects of the TPP is incomplete without a political analysis of policy formation, and that realist methods can be useful to uncover the mechanisms underlying TPP's political and policy processes.

Más información

Título según WOS: ID WOS:000408867100009 Not found in local WOS DB
Título de la Revista: International Journal of Health Policy and Management
Volumen: 6
Número: 7
Editorial: KERMAN UNIV MEDICAL SCIENCES
Fecha de publicación: 2017
Página de inicio: 419
Página final: 421
DOI:

10.15171/ijhpm.2016.145

Notas: ISI