Strengthening Trade and Health Governance Capacities to Address Non-Communicable Diseases in Asia: Challenges and Ways Forward

Phillip Baker*, Adrian Kay, Helen Walls

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Trade liberalisation is a driver of the rising burden of non-communicable diseases in Asia through its role in facilitating the growth of the region's tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed foods industries while simultaneously restricting the capacities of governments to enact public health regulations. This highlights the need for greater coherence between health and trade policy in the region. Yet there has been little analysis of these topics with regard to Asia. What are the barriers and opportunities for enhancing trade and health policy coherence and strengthening governance capacities? How can health, in particular the prevention of non-communicable diseases through curbing risk commodity markets, be positioned more centrally in trade policy? We draw upon a diversity of literature to outline seven key challenges to governing the health-trade nexus as it relates to risk commodities and non-communicable diseases in Asia, and offer suggestions for strengthening capacities.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)310-323
Number of pages14
JournalAsia and the Pacific Policy Studies
Volume2
Issue number2
Early online date28 May 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2015

Bibliographical note

© 2015 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Licensem (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Keywords

  • Asia
  • Governance
  • Non-communicable diseases
  • Regulation
  • Trade liberalisation

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