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| Globalization,
Trade & Health - Links |
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Newsletters and Journals
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ICTSD
The International Centre
for Trade and Sustainable Development, an independent non-profit
organization that aims to contribute to a better understanding
of development and environmental concerns in the context of
international trade, publishes two newsletters:
1. BRIDGES
Weekly Trade News Digest
A weekly e-mail newsletter
on trade and sustainable development that offers a blend of
original reporting and syntheses of trade news from other news
media. Subscribe to
receive e-mail version.
2. BRIDGES
Between Trade and Sustainable Development
Monthly
news and analysis on trade and sustainable development, plus
periodic Latin American (in Spanish), African (in French) and
German editions. Includes calendar of events, new publications and resources.
TWN, an independent
non-profit international network of organizations and
individuals involved in issues relating to development, the
Third World and North- South issues, publishes three newsletters
or journals:
1. SUNS (South - North
Development Monitor), a daily bulletin from Geneva. Can be
ordered on-line or send enquiries and subscriptions to: TWN,
Palais des Nations, Room C-504, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, or
TWN, 228 Macalister Road, 10400 Penang, Malaysia. You may also
send an e-mail to twn@igc.apc.org
or Fax: 604-2264 505
2. Third World Economics,
a bi-monthly economics magazine focussing on the GATT/WTO, the
World Bank/IMF, etc, written by journalists and researchers,
reflecting viewpoints representing the interests of the people
in the South. A selected number of recent articles can be
viewed on-line at: http://www.twnside.org.sg/twe.htm
3. Third World Resurgence,
a monthly magazine on development, ecology, economics, health,
alternatives and South-North relations. A compilation of
articles from recent issues can be viewed on-line at: http://www.twnside.org.sg/twr.htm
World Trade Agenda, S.à.r.l.,
based in Geneva, Switzerland, publishes a fortnightly newsletter
on issues, disputes and negotiations affecting global trading
conditions. Available to subscribers on-line or in print
version. For subscription information, send e-mail to:
mail@tradeagenda.com,
or call them at +41-22-989-3050.
The Information and Media
Relations Division of WTO publishes its own newsletter, Focus,
once every two months. Articles provide updates on key WTO
activities and preview upcoming meetings. You can subscribe to a
printed version by sending an e-mail with your name and address
to the WTO publications unit: free@wto.org
Over two dozen journals
dealing with trade and economics issues, including Journal of
World Trade, Journal of Development Economics, Developing
Economies Quarterly, are listed on the World Bank’s Trade web
site. The site provides links to most of them and in many cases,
you can perform on-line searches of the tables of contents and
article for topics of interest.
Other
journals that occasionally cover
health-and-trade or health-and-globalization issues include:
Development, published by Society
for International Development
Bulletin
of the World Health Organization
Lancet
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Intergovernmental Trade & Development Organizations
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The World Trade
Organization (WTO) is a global international organization
dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart
are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the
world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The
goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and
importers conduct their business.
Technical Assistance and Training for
Developing Countries
For an overview of WTO’s
TA, see: http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/teccop_e/teccop_e.htm#guide
The Trade
Policy Review Mechanism provides a forum in which
Members may openly discuss and provide an objective analysis of
each others' trade policies, separate from the
compliance-related and legal work of the WTO.
See: http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tpr_e/tpr_e.htm
UNCTAD is the focal point
within the United Nations for development and interrelated
issues in the areas of trade, finance, technology, investment
and sustainable development. Its main goals are to
maximize the trade, investment and development opportunities of
developing countries, and to help them face challenges arising
from globalization and integrate into the world economy, on an
equitable basis.
The International Trade
Centre (ITC) based on Geneva is the focal point in the United
Nations system for technical cooperation with developing
countries in trade promotion – both exports and import
operations. ITC is operated jointly with WTO and UNCTAD, and is
an executing agency of UNDP-financed projects in developing
countries related to trade promotion.
Regional Trading Organizations
For links to the major
regional trading organizations,e.g. NAFTA, Mercosur, ASEAN,
European Union, etc., see: http://www1.worldbank.org/wbiep/trade/TD_REG_ORG.html.
The European
Commission’s Trade Directorate has set up several civil
society issue groups, one of which is health (http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/2000_round/issuegr.htm).
For information on EU trade policy developments, see: http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/.
In addition, some regional
inter-governmental organizations provide advice and information
on trade-related issues. For example, the Organization
of American States (OAS) Trade Unit assists the 34
OAS member countries with matters related to trade and economic
integration in the Western Hemisphere and, in particular, with
their efforts to establish a Free Trade Area of the Americas. Go
to: http://www.oas.org/ and
click on “Trade and Integration” at the top of the web site.
The World Bank operates a
comprehensive and very useful “International
Trade and Development” web site, which serves
“as a research, training and outreach tool for people
interested in trade policy and developing countries. Particular
emphasis is placed on the new trade agenda associated with the
upcoming round of WTO negotiations”.
The site offers distance
learning courses, and provides an extensive set of information
(including data and databases) on various trade topics,
including services, intellectual property rights, and standards
which may be of interest to a health audience.
The
Trade and Development Centre. The World Bank’s Economic
Development Institute runs a joint venture with the World Trade
Organization called Information Technologies for Development
(ITD).
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UN / Intergovernmental Organizations with Health-and-Trade
Interests
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Through their joint
sponsorship with WHO of the Codex Alimentarius Commission
(“Codex”), FAO sets and promotes food safety standards,
guidelines and other recommenations for internationally traded
foods. The Codex website is http://www.fao.org/es/esn/codex/.
The Food and Nutrition Division offers information on
biotechnology and food at: http://www.fao.org/waicent/faoinfo/economic/ESN/gm/biotec-e.htm.
In 1999, FAO co-sponsored with WHO and WTO a conference on
International Food Trade Beyond 2000, to review and assess the
implementation of Codex work in the context of the Uruguay Round
trade agreements. See report at:
http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/ECONOMIC/ESN/austral/austra-e.htm
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OECD’s Trade Committee
has not taken up trade-and-health related activities, though
there have been some proposals to initiate activity in
health-care services (e.g. by EC and some EU Member States).
Biotechnology-related work at OECD is undertaken in several
different tracks (see http://www.oecd.org/ehs/icgb/):
e.g. food safety, agriculture, intellectual property rights, and
human health. OECD’s main focus is on international
harmonization of regulatory oversight in biotechnology, to
ensure that environmental health and safety aspects are properly
evaluated, while avoiding non-tariff trade barriers to
biotechnology products.
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Created in 1995, the South
Centre is an intergovernmental body of developing countries.
Currently 46 countries are members, but the Centre works for the
benefit of the South as a whole. They assist in developing
points of view of the South on major policy issues, and help to
generate ideas and action-oriented proposals for governments,
inter-governmental organizations, NGOs and others. They conduct
workshops and publish many trade-related publications and
documents, including a quarterly newsletter, South Letter,
which can be viewed on-line at: http://www.southcentre.org/southletter/index.htm,
and a fortnightly newsletter, called South Bulletin. One of
their most recent reports is Integrating Public Health Concerns
Into Patent Legislation In Developing Countries by Carlos
Correa, of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina; it can be
downloaded at:
http://www.southcentre.org/publications/publichealth/toc.htm
One United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017, USA
Tel: +1-212.906-5302
Fax: +1-212-906-5364
e-mail: aboutundp@undp.org
UNDP is a core member of
the Integrated Framework for Trade-Related Technical Assistance.
Through its country offices, it works with the other core
members (WTO, UNCTAD, ITC, IMF, and the World Bank) in assisting
countries to integrate trade policy within broader poverty
reduction strategies at the national level. The UN
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), based at UNDP, has a
Program on Women and International Trade, which maintains a web
site (http://www.undp.org/unifem/trade/home.htm)
that brings together information on “trade issues and their
gender-differentiated impact on women.” UNIFEM is active in
sponsoring training and workshops and publishing documents
towards this end.
P.O. Box 18
CH-1211 Geneva 20,
Switzerland
Tel: 41 22 338 91 11
Fax: 41 22 733 54 28
e-mail: wipo.mail@wipo.int
WIPO, one of 16
specialized UN agencies with 175 Member States, administers 21
international treaties dealing with different aspects of
intellectual property protection. These treaties, whose details
can be found at: http://www.wipo.org/treaties/index.html
can be divided into three general groups: 1) treaties that
define internationally agreed basic standards of intellectual
property protection in each country, e.g. the Paris, Berne, and
Rome Conventions; 2) registration treaties, which ensures
that one international registration or filing will have effect
in any of the relevant signatory States, and 3) classification
treaties, which create classification systems that organize
information concerning inventions, trademarks and industrial
designs into indexed, manageable structures for easy retrieval.
WIPO has projects or provides technical assistance in the area
of systems for protecting traditional medicine knowledge and
practice, pharmaceutical-intellectual property rights issues,
IPR issues in health-related electronic commerce (e.g.
pharmaceuticals, trademarks, counterfeits, and privacy-issues).
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Non-Governmental / Civil Society Organizations
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24 Highbury Crescent
London, N5 1RX, United
Kingdom
Tel: +44 171 226 6663
Fax: +44 171 354 0607
E-mail: consint@consint.org
Consumers International
(CI) is an independent, non-profit organisation that
supports, links and represents consumer groups and agencies all
over the world. It has a membership of more than 260
organisations in almost 120 countries, and maintains several
regional offices around the world. It defends the rights of all
consumers, including poor, marginalized and disadvantaged
people, by campaigning at the international level for policies
which respect consumer concerns. Among its current campaigns
are: 1) Trade and Economics,
which seeks to ensure that international trade agreements
benefit consumers by lobbying at the WTO and other global and
regional organisations, and researching trade-related issues
such as agricultural liberalisation, intellectual property
rights, competition policy and investment policy; 2) Health,
which promotes the rational use of essential drugs, universal
high quality health care services, and patients' rights, and 3) Food
and Sustainable agriculture, which seeks to improve
nutrition and food standards by involvement in
the Codex Alimentarius Commission and campaigning on GMO
and food security issues. A
publications catalogue, briefing papers, press releases and
updates about campaigns are included on its website.
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P.O. Box 19367
Washington, DC 20036, USA
Tel: +1.202.387.8030
Fax: +1.202.234.5176
By email, for intellectual
property and health care:
James Love love@cptech.org or
Thiru Balasubramaniam thiru@cptech.org
The Consumer Project on
Technology is a non-profit, consumer organization started by
Ralph Nader in 1995. Currently CPT is focusing on intellectual
property rights and health care, electronic commerce (very
broadly defined) and competition policy. Its website has a large
number of documents, articles, and correspondence among key
actors involved in these issues. For example, its web page on
health care, regional trade agreements and intellectual property
rights, has links to IP activities in FTAA, NAFTA & APEC and
other regional trade groups: (http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/trade/).
The country disputes page has documentation on IP-pharmaceutical
issues in 12 countries http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/country/.
33 rue de Pascale
1040 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 2 230 30 56
e-mail: epha@epha.org
EPHA represents over 70
non-governmental and other not-for-profit organisations working
in support of health in Europe. EPHA issues a bi-monthly
magazine on health policy in the EU and Europe -- the European
Public Health Update, to which non-members can subscribe,
available in English, French and German. EPHA organised a
meeting in April 2000 on how WTO agreements and EU policies may
affect health policies, both in developing countries and
European countries. Some of the papers presented at that meeting
are available at:
http://www.epha.org/public/campaigns/wto.htm
c/o: HAI Europe
Jacob van Lennepkade
334-T
1053 NJ Amsterdam, The
Netherlands
Tel: (+31-20) 683 3684
Fax: (+31-20) 685 5002
E-mail: hai@hai.antenna.nl
HAI is a non-profit,
global network of more than 150 health, development, consumer
and other public interest groups in more than 70 countries
working for a more rational use of medicinal drugs. In addition
to the European office, HAI has regional offices for Latin
America (based in Peru) and Asia and the Pacific Region (based
in Malaysia). HAI is currently running advocacy campaigns on Increasing
Access to Essential Drugs in a Globalised Economy and Compulsory
Licensing of Medicines.
13 Chemin des Anémones
1219 Châtelaine, Geneva,
Switzerland
Tel : (41-22) 731-5734
Fax : (41-22) 917-8093
Email: ictsd@ictsd.ch
Established in September
1996, ICTSD contributes to a better understanding of development
and environment concerns in the context of international trade.
As a independent non-profit and non-governmental organisation,
ICTSD engages a broad range of actors in ongoing dialogue about
trade and sustainable development. With a wide network of
partners, ICTSD provides original, non-partisan reporting and
facilitation services at the intersection of international trade
and sustainable development. In addition to its weekly and
monthly newsletters (see p. 1 of this Annex), it publishes
in-depth analyses of specific issues connected to the world
trading system. The web site has a comprehensive set of
background briefs on issues including trade issues/rules, trade
developments, biotechnology and biosafety, health, environment,
women’s rights and gender issues, indigenous knowledge and
intellectual property rights, and human rights.
1, rue de Varembé
Case postale 56
CH-1211 Geneva 20,
Switzerland
Tel: + 41 22 749 01 11
Fax: + 41 22 733 34 30
E-mail: central@iso.ch
See Section 3, Box 3.4
International Health Standard Setting Bodies for a description
of ISO. One of ISO’s best-known standards, the ISO 9000,
provides a framework for quality management and quality
assurance that is used by businesses throughout the world. The
standards are now being revised – see http://www.iso.ch/9000e/revisionstoc.htm
for updates on this revision process. Within the health field,
ISO has developed standards for mechanical contraceptives
(condoms, IUDs and rubber diaphragms), certain medical devices
or surgical instruments, and lab glassware among other things.
Recently, ISO developed eco-labelling standards (ISO
14020 and ISO 14024).
601 Holloway Road
Londa, N194DJ, UK
Tel: 020 7272 2020
FAX: 020 7281 5757
e-mail: info@medact.org
Medact is an organization
of health professionals challenging social and environmental
barriers to health worldwide.
It highlights the health impacts of violent conflict,
poverty and environmental degradation, and works to eradicate
them. Medact has a
report on “World Trade Organisation: Implications for Health
Policy”, available on its website.
MSF International Office:
Rue de la Tourelle, 39$
Brussels, Belgium, 1040
Tel: +32-2-280-1881
Fax: +32-2-280-0173
MSF is an independent
humanitarian medical aid agency committed to providing medical
aid wherever it is needed, and raising awareness of the plight
of the people it helps. MSF has offices in 19 countries, and
operations in 84. The Campaign for Access to Essential
Medicines was created to mobilise support for improved access to
essential medicines. One of the campaign’s three pillars
involves health exceptions to trade agreements (mostly TRIPS).
For more information, see: http://www.accessmed.msf.org/
which has links to numerous documents and articles from around
the world.
228 Macalister Road
10400 Penang, Malaysia
e-mail: twn@igc.apc.org
Telephone: 60-4- 2266728 /
2266159
Fax: 60-4-2264505
TWN is an independent
non-profit international network of organizations and
individuals involved in issues relating to development, the
Third World and North- South issues. Its objectives are to
conduct research on economic, social and environmental issues
pertaining to the South; to publish books and magazines; to
organize and participate in seminars; and to provide a platform
representing broadly Southern interests and perspectives at
international fora such as the UN conferences and processes. In
addition to its newsletters, described above, it publishes
books on environment and economic issues.The TWN also has a
collaborative relationship with the South Centre in Geneva.
TWN's international secretariat is based in Penang, Malaysia,
and has offices in Delhi, India; Montevideo, Uruguay (for South
America); Geneva; London and Accra, Ghana.
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Health-and-Trade Institutes - Academic and Independent
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Wisit Prachuabmoh Building
Chulalongkorn University
Bangkok 10330 Thailand
Tel: (66 2) 218 7363
Fax: (66 2) 255 9976
e-mail: admin@focusweb.org
CUSRI runs Focus on the
Global South, an autonomous programme of “progressive
development policy research and practice” dedicated to
regional and global policy analysis, micro-macro linking and
advocacy work. It publishes Focus-on-Trade, a regular electronic
bulletin (in English and Spanish) providing updates and analysis
on regional and global trade and finance.
Centre on Globalization,
Environmental Change & Health
Keppel St
London WC1E 7HT, United
Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 207 612 7825
Fax: +44 (0) 207 580 6897
e-mail: cgech@LSHTM.ac.uk
Conducts
cross-disciplinary research on globalization, environmental
change and health. The website describes current research, lists
recent publications, and previews coming events.
C/o: STAKES (National
Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health )
PO Box 220
FIN-00531, Helsinki,
Finland
Tel: +358 9 39 671
Fax: +358 761 307
GASPP is a five year
(1997-2002) research, advisory, education and public information
programme based jointly at STAKES
(National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and
Health) based in Helsinki, Finland, and the Centre for
Research on Globalization and Social Policy, Department of
Sociological Studies, University
of Sheffield, England. GASSP conducts research,
provides policy advice, organizes conferences and seminars, and
publishes a number of books and papers (and a journal starting
in 2001). GASSP currently has projects on: 1) the
implications of the WTO and international trade agreements for
health and social policies, and 2) the health implications of
other EU policies.
The Global Trade
Negotiations Home Page
is a one-stop resource for
those interested in analytical, up to date information on the
multitude of issues, debates, government positions, and
organizations that surround international trade policy. It has a
large collection of research papers and articles, links to other
websites, as well as contact information for additional sources.
The site allows you to navigate the Internet to find information
on global trade policy and negotiations. Resources and links are
organized by: Actors (National Governments, NGOs, International
Organizations) and Trade Issue (SPS/TBT, electronic commerce,
intellectual property and services, among many others).
University of Sussex
Brighton, UK
Tel: +44 1273 877330
Fax: +44 1273 621202
e-mail: eldis@ids.ac.uk
IDS operates ELDIS, an
Internet-based “Gateway to Information Sources on Development
and the Environment”. It provides descriptions and links to a
wide variety of information sources, including online documents,
organisation's WWW sites, databases, library catalogues,
bibliographies, and e-mail discussion lists, research project
information, map and newspaper collections. It also
describes available databases, CDRoms, etc. ELDIS has a special
site devoted to international trade issues, complete with short
background papers and links to many other international and
research institutions, and statistical sources: http://nt1.ids.ac.uk/eldis/trade/trade.htm.
ELDIS maintains a similar site devoted to international health
issues, at: http://nt1.ids.ac.uk/eldis/health/health.htm
Links to other trade-related institutes
can be found at:
http://www1.worldbank.org/wbiep/trade/TD_INSTITUTIONS.html
Links to institutes or organizations that
study and research general globalization issues:
http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/websites.htm
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Glossaries of Common Health and Trade Terms
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Prepared for the Second
WTO Ministerial Conference in May 1998. It is an on-line
abridged version of the WTO Trilingual Glossary, “an immense
vocabulary of trade” in English, French and Spanish. Many
entries contain a reference to relevant sources and include
acronyms, definitions, explanatory notes and other useful
information. To order the Trilingual Glossary, order from
the WTO on-line bookshop, e-mail: publications@wto.org
or go to: http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/booksp_e.htm
WHO maintains a list of
medical dictionaries and glossaries, along with links to their
web sites. In addition to links to general medicine
dictionaries, it has 20 specialized categories from AIDS to
Tropical Medicine. WHO also has a terminology guide to the World
Health Report 2000 on Health Systems: http://www.who.int/terminology/ter/TERWB-WHR2000.htm,
with translations into French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and
Arabic.
UNIFEM’s trade site has
a directory of terms and acronyms in the trade arena, with links
to many related websites.
Includes definitions,
links to definitions, and wherever appropriate links to other
sites and documents that may provide additional information.
“This glossary will eventually attempt to cover all of the
terms and concepts from international economics, including both
international trade and international finance, at least at the
introductory level.” Because the author’s specialty is
international trade, coverage in that area is more thorough. |
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