INTERNATIONAL TRADE REGULATION AND PUBLICLY FUNDED HEALTH CARE IN CANADA

• Published in: International journal of health services Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 475 - 480
• Main Author: Ostry, Aleck S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA Baywood Publishing Company, Inc 01.01.2001; SAGE Publications
• Subjects: Canada; Capitalism; Commerce - economics; Commerce - legislation & jurisprudence; Drug Industry - economics; Drug Industry - trends; Drugs, Generic; Health; Health care; Health economics; Health Facilities, Proprietary; Health policy; Health services; Humans; International Cooperation; International trade; Multinational corporations; National Health Programs - economics; National Health Programs - trends; Patents as Topic - legislation & jurisprudence; Privatization; Privatization - trends; Public services; Regulation; Regulations; The World Trade Organization and Health Care; World Trade Organization; Canada
• ISSN: 0020-7314; 1541-4469
• DOI: 10.2190/MT8D-H4EC-JKME-3KD3

The World Trade Organization (WTO) creates new challenges for the Canadian health care system, arguably one of the most "socialized" systems in the world today. In particular, the WTO's enhanced trade dispute resolution powers, enforceable with sanctions, may make Canadian health care vulnerable to corporate penetration, particularly in the pharmaceutical and private health services delivery sectors. The Free Trade Agreement and its extension, the North American Free Trade Agreement, gave multinational pharmaceutical companies greater freedom in Canada at the expense of the Canadian generic drug industry. Recent challenges by the WTO have continued this process, which will limit the health care system's ability to control drug costs. And pressure is growing, through WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services and moves by the Alberta provincial government to privatize health care delivery, to open up the Canadian system to corporate penetration. New WTO agreements will bring increasing pressure to privatize Canada's public health care system and limit government's ability to control pharmaceutical costs.