Do trade and investment agreements protect public health and universal health coverage?

The European Union (EU) is committed to ensuring high levels of health protection in all policies. Health in All policies and developing an Economy of Wellbeing are on Finnish and EU agendas. However, progress has been limited in trade-related negotiations and areas where commercial interests are at stake. Our research will examine and assess the extent to which EU has addressed health in trade and investment policy arenas. We will use trade-related documents and interviews for comparative analyses, examining processes and practice of health impact assessments of trade agreements as well as the scope and limits of gender, labour and sustainability chapters to address health. We will analyse potential alternatives utilising post-pandemic negotiations on pandemic preparedness and equitable access to vaccines. Applying bioethics principles and frameworks, we seek to develop new tools to explicate and better balance conflicts between health and trade priorities.