Role of public health and trade for achieving sustainable development goals

The United Nations General Assembly adopted "2030 agenda" for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the objective of "transforming our world." Provision of health and trade services is central in SDGs. This study focuses on broad objectives of public health and trade, which would significantly contribute to satisfying the health and trade-related targets of the SDGs. The paper outlines the key provisions in recent trade agreements that constrain policy space for implementing universal health coverage. It focuses on actions of relevance to health innovations and access to health products with the contribution of health and trade policies. Regarding innovation, short-term, mid-term and long-term measures are proposed concerning the General Agreement on Trade in Services, Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures and Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). For intellectual property, four actions are proposed, which are empiric assessments; adoption of an integrated approach; intensive use of the TRIPS flexibilities and agreeing on the meaning of pharmaceutical innovation.