The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: Trading away our health?

There is long-standing interest by the public health community in the potential implications of trade and investment agreements for public health. Our commentary highlights the main pathways by which the Trans-Pacific Partnerships (TPP), a comprehensive trade and investment agreement currently under negotiation, might undermine population health (based on analysis of and commentary about leaked chapters of the TPP), and calls for a more transparent and health-sensitive TPP negotiation process. We argue that use of comprehensive health impact assessments could be helpful in identifying how the potentially serious health consequences of the TPP and similar future international trade and investment agreements can be avoided, minimized or mitigated.