Trade Agreements and Public Health: A Primer for Health Policy Makers, Researchers and Advocates.

Trade Agreements and Public Health: A Primer for Health Policy Makers, Researchers and Advocates by Deborah Gleeson and Ronald Labonté is the first easily accessible, plain language text on international trade agreements and public health. The book spans the technical and political dimensions of trade and health, providing an outline of the different issues and agreements, a discussion of methods for analyzing the impact of trade agreements on health and an analysis of approaches to advocacy and capacity-building toward healthier trade agreements. 

The book introduces readers to the ambivalent relationship between trade and health and explains why understanding this relationship, along with the complex web of trade and investment rules since World War II, is important for protecting and promoting health. The authors outline the main pathways for trade agreements to impact health and some of the problems with the trade policy-making processes. The authors also make proposals for reform in four areas: changes to the legal rules included in trade agreements, reforms to the trade policy-making process, action to strengthen global governance of trade and health and capacity-building and research activities.