Study in Trade and Health Policy Coherence

Relationship between trade and health started from the infectious disease spread due to cross-border trade. But recently, the links between trade agreements and health have been the subject of intense international debate in policy and academic community after the publication of a joint study by World Health Organization and World Trade Organization in 2002. More importantly, the conflict between trade and health became a serious issue domestically and internationally. International trade is one of the fundamental elements of Taiwan’s economic growth. Therefore, international negotiations regarding free trade agreements are common and important for Taiwan. However, conflicts between trade and health are frequently debated recently. For example, controversy between Taiwan and United Status has raised in 2007 during the negotiation of bilateral free trade agreement which centered on the health concerns regarding bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE; commonly known as mad cow disease), and the use of ractopamine as an additive in feeds. Recently, leaders of Taiwan considered hardly to sign the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP) with United Status for enhancing the economic capacity of Taiwan through increasing international market. However, the health concerns regarding the impact of modifying intellectual property laws of Taiwan and on the affordability of National Health Insurance were raised, combined with the health concern of importing pork from USA which feed with ractopamine. Those conflicts between trade and health showed the policy incoherence between department of trade and department of health in Taiwan and the needs of finding a health policy in reaching the policy coherence between trade and health. The policy incoherence in trade and health might not only cause the domestic debate and conflicts which lead to mistrust of government, but also delivered the confusing message and impression of Taiwan internationally which caused the concern of reliability and the accountability of the nation. Therefore, the need of studying the policy coherence in trade and health is urgent. As a response, this study aims at studying the policy coherence in trade and health through interview and questionnaire survey.