IOGT International is a founding member of the Health and Trade Network (HaT), a global network advocating for health wherever trade agreements are negotiated and to force trade agreements to prove their benefit to health before we can support them.
Founding Director of HaT Emma Woodford has published an OpEd in EurActiv about CETA and its impact on public health. We share a few excerpts here and encourage you to read the full story.
Don’t be fooled by CETA: It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing
In truth, the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is problematic for public health, its main problem being that it features the same provisions on investor protection and investment arbitration as the EU wants to incorporate into TTIP. There is a real risk that these could inhibit public interest decision-making in the area of health.
CETA will eliminate tariffs on soft drinks entirely which runs in direct contradiction to the price increasing aims of taxes such as the sugar tax. The EU currently applies tariffs of 9.6% on soft drink imports from Canada and the United States.
Even the Interim Trade Sustainability Impact Assessment (TSIA) conducted on behalf of the Commission for TTIP found that consumption of such unhealthy products could increase if tariffs are eliminated. Tobacco, alcohol and food lobbyists want to ensure that the two agreements put a freeze on policies designed to prevent obesity and chronic disease for fear of profit loss…”