The United Kingdom, like many countries, is working to develop policies that address these pressing public health concerns. Measures such as stricter labelling requirements, age restrictions, or even bans on certain products in the food, tobacco, and alcohol industries are crucial steps toward reducing the burden of NCDs. However, these initiatives must also navigate international trade regulations. Under WTO rules, member countries, including the UK, are required to notify the WTO of any new regulations that could affect trade. These notifications can trigger discussions or challenges from other member nations, especially if there is a perception that such regulations may unfairly restrict international trade.
The World Trade Organization’s Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee plays a crucial role in these discussions. The TBT Committee serves as a forum where member governments can raise concerns about new regulations. While governments have the right to introduce measures to protect public health, that right is not without limitations. In fact, past research has shown that discussions at the TBT Committee can influence governments to modify, delay, or even abandon important public health policies.
Research objectives
This research aims to address the issue head-on by examining how governments have defended their NCD prevention policies within the TBT Committee. Through comprehensive analysis, the project team will explore how evidence is presented and received at the Committee and investigate the outcomes of these discussions.
Focussing on the evidence that governments have presented at the Committee and how evidence has been treated by other World Trade Organization members, the team will highlight how the UK Government and others can increase the chances of successfully implementing NCD prevention strategies.
Key partners
Awarded £813.6k from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), as part of the NIHR Policy Research Programme, this research partners with the University of Bristol and the London School of Tropical Medicine.
The study, with Professor Amandine Garde and Professor Gregory Messenger as Co-Leads and Professor Gabriel Siles-Brügge, Marcelo Campbell, and Dr May van Schalkwyk as Co-Investigators, will run July 2023 – June 2026.
This research supports several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production), and SDG 17 (partnership for the goals).
Liverpool’s Law & NCD Unit has undertaken extensive academic and policy work in recent years to understand how the tobacco, alcohol, and food industries have used legal strategies to oppose the effective regulation of their commercial practices. The continuation of this work seeks to identify how these strategies can best be addressed to promote better health for all.
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