CPATH in South Korea:

Public Health & the KORUS FTA

June, 2007

The National Health Insurance Corporation of Korea invited CPATH Co-Directors Ellen Shaffer and Joe Brenner to visit and discuss KORUS' implications for access to affordable drugs, tobacco control and the encroachment of privatized, for- profit health care.  We found health advocates deeply concerned that KORUS will send the health care system veering off in just the wrong direction at just the wrong time. For story and photos, please click below.

KOREAN TRADE AGREEMENT: THREAT TO PUBLIC HEALTH

May 30, 2007

The U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) continues the practice of corporate hijacking global trade negotiations to the benefit of transnational drug and tobacco companies, and at the expense of people’s health. It threatens core protections for public health, long under fire from NAFTA's notorious Chapter 11.

Despite mounting calls for democratic participation in trade policies relevant to public health, labor and the environment, the U.S. Trade Representative failed to involve its own advisory committees, members of Congress, and the public in negotiating key provisions of KORUS. 

The agreement would:

·         Affect reimbursement rates for hospital drugs covered by Medicare and drugs provided in community clinics in the U.S.

·         Raise drug prices in Korea. Many Koreans already cannot afford life-saving drugs, and the national health program’s budget is strained.

·         Reverse recent tobacco controls in Korea, where 47% of men smoke and cancer is the leading cause of death.

·         Subject water and sanitation services to privatization and deregulation in the U.S. and Korea.

·         Strengthen NAFTA-style corporate rights that encourage frivolous trade challenges against public health protections, at a cost of millions of dollars to taxpayers.  

CPATH’s “Public Health Report Card on KORUS” details how KORUS undermines Public Health Objectives for Global Trade:

1. Access to affordable medicines

2. Tobacco control

3.  Democratic participation by public health and transparency in trade policy

4.  Protect vital human services such as health care, water supply and sanitation

5.  National, regional and local government sovereignty to protect population health

6.  Sustainable economic development

7. Alcohol beverage control

TOWARDS A HEALTHY TRADE POLICY:

ALTERNATIVES TO THE PERU FTA

MAY, 2007

Public health advocates are asking Congress and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to adopt enforceable Public Health Objectives as a basis for amending pending trade agreements and to guide any future agreements, and to initiate a review of bilateral, regional and multilateral agreements for their adherence to public health principles.  The objectives are:

Public Health Objectives for Global Trade propose policies that would promote and protect health and sustainable economic development. (See Ways & Means Testimony below for signatories to the Objectives.) The U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement, and the U.S.-Panama Free Trade Agreement, with substantially similar provisions, have been signed by the President, and await review by Congress. These reports recommend how to fix the U.S.-Colombia and the Peru Trade Agreements to conform with these Objectives on public health representation on trade advisory committees; domestic authorities’ right and imperative to regulate; and public health protections for health services, health professional licensing, tobacco and alcohol control, and access to affordable medicines.