HEALTH OR TRADE? A CRITIQUE OF CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO GLOBAL HEALTH DIPLOMACY

This article offers a three-pronged critique of contemporary approaches to “global health diplomacy”. The author argues that while the related concepts of “global health governance ” and “globalization of public health ” aptly captures the dynamic governance landscape of public health in an inter-dependent world, “global health diplomacy ” remains an omnibus concept that merely re-invents the wheel of age-old international health cooperation between nation-states. While the author identified three limbs of this critique, the article focused on the third limb, and argues that the major drivers of global of health diplomacy are the developments at the World Trade Organization (WTO) that impact markedly on public health globally. Focusing on three agreements enforced by the WTO – TRIPS, SPS and GATS, the author argues that that exponents of global health diplomacy should think of the relevan