1 / 14

Trade Agreements and Human Rights

Trade Agreements and Human Rights. Why is trade a human rights issue?. Trade sanctions can (arguably) be a means of enforcing human rights Yet embargos often can contribute to violations of rights, too (e.g., Cuba)

martha-stevenson
Download Presentation

Trade Agreements and Human Rights

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Trade Agreements and Human Rights

  2. Why is trade a human rights issue? • Trade sanctions can (arguably) be a means of enforcing human rights • Yet embargos often can contribute to violations of rights, too (e.g., Cuba) • Trade and investment flows affect the economy, can provide solutions for human rights challenges • Structure of trade relations determines who benefits: how is trade conducted? • “Free” trade is a loaded term

  3. Does free trade benefit human rights? Free trade = removal of tariffs and barriers and other “market distortions” In theory, this should produce: • Reduced prices • Wider consumer choices How does this mesh with human rights reality? • In practice, a lot of what gets called free trade is not • Bottom line: look beyond the label “free trade” to actual policies • Should everything be a commodity?

  4. Trade Agreements in the Americas • NAFTA 1994 • US- Chile 2003 • CAFTA 2005 • US- Peru 2007 • Agreements with Colombia, Panama (yet to be ratified) • FTAA originally scheduled for January 1, 2005; stalled

  5. Trade Agreements in the Americas Human rights concerns: • Lack of parity (e.g., agricultural subsidies) => dumping • Facilitate development model that creates jobs and economic growth, but at what cost? Who benefits? • Concerns about labor, environment • Establish institutions that circumvent democratic checks and balances • Investor-state arbitration (Chapter 11 of NAFTA, Chapter 10 of CAFTA)

  6. “Free Trade,” Intellectual Property, and Human Rights

  7. Intellectual property • Why is this a human rights issue? • History of IP • WTO TRIPS Agreement 1994 • Doha Declaration 2001 • “TRIPS-plus provisions” in free trade agreements began after Doha

  8. What are “TRIPS-plus” IP provisions? Extension of patents + Test data exclusivity _______________________________ = Longer periods of market monopoly

  9. HIV/AIDS in CAFTA countries • Prior to CAFTA: 1 in 6 people who need antiretrovirals received them • Generic treatment: $230 per patient, per year • Brand-name drugs: $2,000-2,500 per patient, per year

  10. Edgar

  11. Who opposes IP rights in FTA’s? • Amnesty International • Oxfam • Doctors without Borders • World Health Organization • 11 members of US Congress in January 2005 “The test data secrecy/market exclusivity rules will slow the introduction of generic drugs, decrease competition, raise prices, and hinder access to life-saving medicines in the DR-CAFTA countries.” • 13 members of US Congress in November 2005 • Ministers of health in 10 South American countries in May 2006

  12. What do defenders of TRIPS-plus say to such critiques? USTR: “CAFTA expressly states that nothing in the agreement will affect a country’s ability to take measures necessary to protect public health.” Argument that CAFTA/AFTA increase access by encouraging major pharmaceuticals to register drugs in small markets

  13. What’s at stake?

  14. Their lives are not for sale

More Related