International Trade and Investment and Food Systems: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and What We Don’t Know We Don’t Know

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Menzies Centre for Health Governance, School of Regulation and Global Governance, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

Abstract

Background
Globalised and industrialised food systems contribute to human and planetary health challenges, such as food insecurity, malnutrition, and climate change. International trade and investment can serve as a barrier or enabler to food system transformations that would improve health and environmental outcomes.
 
Methods
This article used health impact assessment (HIA) to analyse what we know, what we don’t know, and what we don’t know we don’t know about the role that trade and investment might play in food system transformations to improve human and planetary health.
 
Results
Evidence exists for the link between trade and investment and the spread of unhealthy food commodities, efforts to impede nutrition labelling, and increased concentration of ultra-processed food and beverage product companies. The role of trade and investment in the reduction of animal sources in human diets is emerging and may include challenging measures that restrict the use of terms like ‘milk’ and ‘burger’ in plant-based alternatives and the promotion of plantbased foods through non-tariff barriers and targeted efforts at regulatory harmonisation. Trade disputes may serve as the forum for battles around state discrepancies in the safety and acceptability of technological innovation in the food supply, as was the case with hormone treated beef between the European Union (EU) and the United States. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) obligations are unambitious but represent welcome progress in balancing public and private interests. Finally, introducing greater policy flexibility, transparency, and participation provides opportunities to shape a modern trade and investment system that can respond to future food system challenges in a timely fashion.
 
Conclusion
Research at the intersection of trade and investment and food systems should address emergent food systems issues, particularly those that intersect health and climate, while policy efforts should be future-proofing the flexibility of the trade and investment system to enable food system design that supports improved human and planetary health outcomes.

Keywords

Full Text

 

"Watch the Special Issue Video Summary"

 

  Check the full list of "Political Economy of Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems" special issue here. 

 

References

  1. World Health Organization (WHO). World Hunger is Still not Going Down After Three Years and Obesity is Still Growing. https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/15-07-2019-world-hunger-is-still-not-going-down-after-three-years-and-obesity-is-still-growing-un-report.  Published 2019.
  2. World Health Organization (WHO). Obesity and Overweight. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight.  Published 2020.
  3. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The Future of Food and Agriculture: Trends and Challenges. http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6583e.pdf. Published 2017.
  4. Ding Q, Chen X, Hilborn R, Chen Y. Vulnerability to impacts of climate change on marine fisheries and food security. Mar Policy. 2017;83:55-61. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2017.05.011
  5. Kotir JH. Climate change and variability in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review of current and future trends and impacts on agriculture and food security. Environ Dev Sustain. 2011;13(3):587-605. doi:10.1007/s10668-010-9278-0
  6. Schram A, Ruckert A, VanDuzer JA, et al. A conceptual framework for investigating the impacts of international trade and investment agreements on noncommunicable disease risk factors. Health Policy Plan. 2018;33(1):123-136. doi:10.1093/heapol/czx133
  7. Friel S, Schram A, Townsend B. The nexus between international trade, food systems, malnutrition and climate change. Nat Food. 2020;1(1):51-58. doi:10.1038/s43016-019-0014-0
  8. Lehto J, Ritsatakis A. Health impact assessment as a tool for intersectoral health policy. http://www.impactsante.ch/pdf/HIA_Gothenburg_consensus_paper_1999.  Published 1999.
  9. Grant MJ, Booth A. A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Info Libr J. 2009;26(2):91-108. doi:10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x
  10. Thow AM, Snowdon W, Labonté R, et al. Will the next generation of preferential trade and investment agreements undermine prevention of noncommunicable diseases? a prospective policy analysis of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement. Health Policy. 2015;119(1):88-96. doi:10.1016/j.healthpol.2014.08.002
  11. Friel S, Gleeson D, Thow AM, et al. A new generation of trade policy: potential risks to diet-related health from the trans pacific partnership agreement. Global Health. 2013;9:46. doi:10.1186/1744-8603-9-46
  12. Chatterjee S, Rae AN, Ray R. Globalisation, agriculture and development: perspectives from the Asia-Pacific. In: Tonts M, Siddique MAB, eds. Globalisation, Agriculture and Development. Edward Elgar Publishing; 2011:102.
  13. Thow AM, Hawkes C. The implications of trade liberalization for diet and health: a case study from Central America. Global Health. 2009;5:5. doi:10.1186/1744-8603-5-5
  14. Schram A, Labonté R, Sanders D. Urbanization and international trade and investment policies as determinants of noncommunicable diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa. Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2013;56(3):281-301. doi:10.1016/j.pcad.2013.09.016
  15. Baker P, Friel S, Schram A, Labonte R. Trade and investment liberalization, food systems change and highly processed food consumption: a natural experiment contrasting the soft-drink markets of Peru and Bolivia. Global Health. 2016;12(1):24. doi:10.1186/s12992-016-0161-0
  16. Schram A, Labonte R, Baker P, Friel S, Reeves A, Stuckler D. The role of trade and investment liberalization in the sugar-sweetened carbonated beverages market: a natural experiment contrasting Vietnam and the Philippines. Global Health. 2015;11:41. doi:10.1186/s12992-015-0127-7
  17. Ravuvu A, Friel S, Thow AM, Snowdon W, Wate J. Monitoring the impact of trade agreements on national food environments: trade imports and population nutrition risks in Fiji. Global Health. 2017;13(1):33. doi:10.1186/s12992-017-0257-1
  18. Barlow P, McKee M, Basu S, Stuckler D. Impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement on high-fructose corn syrup supply in Canada: a natural experiment using synthetic control methods. CMAJ. 2017;189(26):E881-e887. doi:10.1503/cmaj.161152
  19. Hawkes C. The role of foreign direct investment in the nutrition transition. Public Health Nutr. 2005;8(4):357-365. doi:10.1079/phn2004706
  20. Thow AM, Snowdon W. The effect of trade and trade policy on diet and health in the Pacific Islands. In: Hawkes C, Blouin C, Henson S, Drager N, Dube L, eds. Trade, Food, Diet and Health: Perspectives and Policy Options. Chichester: Blackwell Publications; 2010:147-168.
  21. Clark SE, Hawkes C, Murphy SM, Hansen-Kuhn KA, Wallinga D. Exporting obesity: US farm and trade policy and the transformation of the Mexican consumer food environment. Int J Occup Environ Health. 2012;18(1):53-65. doi:10.1179/1077352512z.0000000007
  22. Mattson JW, Koo WW. U.S. Processed Food Exports and Foreign Direct Investment in the Western Hemisphere. https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/23547. Published 2002.
  23. Asiedu E. Foreign direct investment in Africa: the role of natural resources, market size, government policy, institutions and political instability. World Econ. 2006;29(1):63-77. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9701.2006.00758.x
  24. Barlow P, McKee M, Basu S, Stuckler D. The health impact of trade and investment agreements: a quantitative systematic review and network co-citation analysis. Global Health. 2017;13(1):13. doi:10.1186/s12992-017-0240-x
  25. Jones A, Neal B, Reeve B, Ni Mhurchu C, Thow AM. Front-of-pack nutrition labelling to promote healthier diets: current practice and opportunities to strengthen regulation worldwide. BMJ Glob Health. 2019;4(6):e001882. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2019-001882
  26. Barreiro-Hurlé J, Gracia A, de-Magistris T. Does nutrition information on food products lead to healthier food choices? Food Policy. 2010;35(3):221-229. doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2009.12.006
  27. Cecchini M, Warin L. Impact of food labelling systems on food choices and eating behaviours: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized studies. Obes Rev. 2016;17(3):201-210. doi:10.1111/obr.12364
  28. Neal B, Crino M, Dunford E, et al. Effects of different types of front-of-pack labelling information on the healthiness of food purchases-a randomised controlled trial. Nutrients. 2017;9(12). doi:10.3390/nu9121284
  29. World Health Organization (WHO). Draft approach on the prevention and management of conflicts of interest in the policy development and implementation of nutrition programmes at country level. Decision-Making Process and Tool. https://www.who.int/nutrition/consultation-doi/comments/en/.  Published 2017.
  30. Thow AM, Jones A, Hawkes C, Ali I, Labonté R. Nutrition labelling is a trade policy issue: lessons from an analysis of specific trade concerns at the World Trade Organization. Health Promot Int. 2018;33(4):561-571. doi:10.1093/heapro/daw109
  31. Barlow P, Labonte R, McKee M, Stuckler D. Trade challenges at the World Trade Organization to national noncommunicable disease prevention policies: a thematic document analysis of trade and health policy space. PLoS Med. 2018;15(6):e1002590. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002590
  32. International Trade Centre. ITC investment map. https://www.investmentmap.org.  Published 2013.
  33. Friel S, Ponnamperuma S, Schram A, et al. Shaping the discourse: what has the food industry been lobbying for in the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement and what are the implications for dietary health? Crit Public Health. 2016;26(5):518-529. doi:10.1080/09581596.2016.1139689
  34. Stuckler D, McKee M, Ebrahim S, Basu S. Manufacturing epidemics: the role of global producers in increased consumption of unhealthy commodities including processed foods, alcohol, and tobacco. PLoS Med. 2012;9(6):e1001235. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001235
  35. Hawkes C. Uneven dietary development: linking the policies and processes of globalization with the nutrition transition, obesity and diet-related chronic diseases. Global Health. 2006;2:4. doi:10.1186/1744-8603-2-4
  36. Taylor K. These 10 Companies Control Everything You Buy. Business Insider; 2016.
  37. Friel S, Baker P, Thow AM, Gleeson D, Townsend B, Schram A. An exposé of the realpolitik of trade negotiations: implications for population nutrition. Public Health Nutr. 2019;22(16):3083-3091. doi:10.1017/s1368980019001642
  38. GRAIN. Asia Under Threat of UPOV 91. https://www.grain.org/en/article/6372-asia-under-threat-of-upov-91.  Published 2019.
  39. Berne Declaration. Owning Seeds, Accessing Food: A Human Rights Impact Assessment of UPOV 1991 Based on Case Studies in Kenya, Peru and the Philippines. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/49fa/c3d2ce094f30657de45718e09c1f74dd903a.pdf?_ga=2.162255861.831360893.1583900837-542878745.1580773260.  Published 2014.
  40. Dave A, Bhardwaj M. PepsiCo Sues Four Indian Farmers for Using its Patented Lay's Potatoes. Reuters. April 26, 2019. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-pepsi-farmers-idUSKCN1S21EL.
  41. Labonté R, Schram A, Ruckert A. The Trans-Pacific Partnership: is it everything we feared for health? Int J Health Policy Manag. 2016;5(8):487-496. doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2016.41
  42. Reeve B, Gostin LO. "Big" food, tobacco, and alcohol: reducing industry influence on noncommunicable disease prevention laws and policies: Comment on "Addressing NCDs: challenges from industry market promotion and interferences.” Int J Health Policy Manag. 2019;8(7):450-454. doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2019.30
  43. Ahmed A, Richtel M, Jacobs A. In Nafta Talks, U.S. Tries to Limit Junk Food Warning Labels. The New York Times. March 20, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/world/americas/nafta-food-labels-obesity.html.
  44. North American Market Working Group of the U.S. Food and Agriculture Dialogue for Trade. Docket No. USTR-2017-0006- Request for Comments on Negotiating Objectives Regarding Modernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. http://www.nopa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Public-Comments_US-Food-Ag-Dialogue-NAmer_170612_FINAL.pdf.  Published 2017.
  45. Labonté R, Crosbie E, Gleeson D, McNamara C. USMCA (NAFTA 2.0): tightening the constraints on the right to regulate for public health. Global Health. 2019;15(1):35. doi:10.1186/s12992-019-0476-8
  46. Swinburn BA, Kraak VI, Allender S, et al. The global syndemic of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change: the Lancet Commission report. Lancet. 2019;393(10173):791-846. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(18)32822-8
  47. Willett W, Rockström J, Loken B, et al. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Lancet. 2019;393(10170):447-492. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(18)31788-4
  48. van Esch P, Heller J, Northey G. The effects of inner packaging color on the desirability of food. J Retail Consum Serv. 2019;50:94-102. doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.05.003
  49. Tarabashkina L, Quester PG, Crouch R. Children and energy-dense foods–parents, peers, acceptability or advertising? Eur J Mark. 2017;51(9-10):1669-94. doi:10.1108/ejm-02-2015-0074
  50. Pratt L. It’s All in the Label. Canadian Grocer; 2017.
  51. Irfan U. ‘Fake Milk’: Why the Dairy Industry is Boiling Over Plant-Based Milks. Vox. December 21, 2018. https://www.vox.com/2018/8/31/17760738/almond-milk-dairy-soy-oat-labeling-fda.
  52. Neo P. Australian industry attacks potential ban of ‘meat,’ ‘milk’ labels for plant-based products. FoodNavigator-Asia website. https://www.foodnavigator-asia.com/Article/2020/01/15/Australian-industry-attacks-potential-ban-of-meat-milk-labels-for-plant-based-products.
  53. Codex Alimentarius. General Standard for the Use of Dairy Terms. Codex Stan 206-1999. http://www.fao.org/input/download/standards/332/CXS_206e.pdf. Published 1999.
  54. Codex Alimentarius. Standards for Cooked Cured Chopped Meat. Codex Stan 98-1981. http://www.fao.org/input/download/standards/161/CXS_098e_2015.pdf.  Published 1981.
  55. Goldfarb R. Is Soy Milk to Milk as E-Books are to Books? - Contracts and Commercial Law Blog - Contracts and Commercial Law - LexisNexis® Legal Newsroom. LexisNexis. January 8, 2014. https://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/commercial/b/contracts-commercial-law/posts/is-soy-milk-to-milk-as-e-books-are-to-books.  Published 2014.
  56. England R. Lab-Grown Meat is not Meat, Missouri State Rules. Engadget website. https://www.engadget.com/2018-08-29-lab-grown-meat-is-not-meat-missouri-state-rules.html. Published August 29, 2018. 
  57. Johnson R. The U.S.-EU Beef Hormone Dispute. Congressional Research Service. (7-5700, R40449). http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/assets/crs/R40449.pdf.
  58. Petetin L. Frankenburgers, risks and approval. Eur J Risk Regul. 2014;5(2):168-186. doi:10.1017/s1867299x00003585
  59. The George Institute for Global Health. Salt Levels in Meat Alternatives in Australia (2010-2019). https://www.georgeinstitute.org/sites/default/files/meat_alternatives_key_findings_report.pdf.  Published 2019.
  60. Peels R, Schneider A, Echeverria E, Aissi J. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in International Trade and Investment Agreements: Implications for States, Businesses and Workers. International Labour Office; 2016.
  61. Mabey N, McNally R. Foreign Direct Investment and the Environment: From Pollution Havens to Sustainable Development. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/26f2/3f7304e34d7a7a05ba6b8fc1e239015c81d0.pdf. Published 1999.
  62. Bernasconi-Osterwalder N, Cosbey A, Johnson L, Vis-Dunbar D. Investment Treaties and Why They Matter to Sustainable Development: Questions and Answers. https://www.iisd.org/sites/default/files/publications/investment_treaties_why_they_matter_sd.pdf . Published 2012.
  63. Dubin L. Corporate Social Responsibility Clauses in Investment Treaties. https://www.iisd.org/itn/2018/12/21/corporate-social-responsibility-clauses-in-investment-treaties-laurence-dubin. Published 2018.
  64. Public Citizen. Only One of 44 Attempts to Use the GATT Article XX/GATS Article XIV ‘General Exception’ Has Ever Succeeded: Replicating the WTO Exception Construct Will Not Provide for an Effective TPP General Exception. Public Citizen; 2015.
  65. Thow AM, Annan R, Mensah L, Chowdhury SN. Development, implementation and outcome of standards to restrict fatty meat in the food supply and prevent NCDs: learning from an innovative trade/food policy in Ghana. BMC Public Health. 2014;14:249. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-249
  66. Battams S, Townsend B. Power asymmetries, policy incoherence and noncommunicable disease control-a qualitative study of policy actor views. Crit Public Health. 2019;29(5):596-609. doi:10.1080/09581596.2018.1492093
  67. Ranald P. The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: reaching behind the border, challenging democracy. Econ Labour Relat Rev. 2015;26(2):241-260. doi:10.1177/1035304615580721
  68. Thaiprayoon S, Smith R. Capacity building for global health diplomacy: Thailand's experience of trade and health. Health Policy Plan. 2015;30(9):1118-1128. doi:10.1093/heapol/czu117
  69. FTA Watch. What Deputy PM Somkid Didn’t Say: Disasters Loom Large as Thai Government Eager to Join CPTPP. https://www.bilaterals.org/?what-deputy-pm-somkid-didn-t-say. Published February 20, 2020.
  70. Friel S, Chopra M, Satcher D. Unequal weight: equity oriented policy responses to the global obesity epidemic. BMJ. 2007;335(7632):1241-1243. doi:10.1136/bmj.39377.622882.47
  71. Duquet S, Geraets D. Food Safety Standards and Informal International Lawmaking. Oslo: TOAEP Publishers; 2012:397-436.

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 07 May 2020
  • Revise Date: 02 October 2020
  • Accept Date: 07 October 2020
  • First Publish Date: 27 October 2020

Share

How to cite

Statistics