Annual Meeting 2011

Resolutions

CNA Resolutions - June 2004

RESOLUTION 7	GLOBALIZATION AND THE TRADE AGENDA: STRENGTHENING HEALTH FOR ALL
(Approved)

BE IT RESOLVED, That the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) take a leadership role in lobbying the federal government to place the right to health at the core of all trade agreements, thus making sure that “health for all” advances from vision to reality; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That CNA lobby the federal government to ensure that trade and investment agreements not be used to encourage the privatization of health and social services but rather to strengthen publicly funded and controlled, accessible health services; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That CNA lobby the federal government to ensure that resources that are essential to health, such as water, should remain under public control and accessible to all.

Background

Economic integration on a global scale presents major opportunities and challenges for nurses and other health advocates around the world. A major opportunity is provided by the increased flow of information and interconnection among people.

The reality of the global economy today is quite distant from this vision, with dire impacts on health. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP):

More than 50 nations grew poorer over the past decade. Many are seeing life expectancy plummet due to HIV/AIDS. Some of the worst performers – often torn by conflict – are seeing school enrolments shrink and access to basic health care fall. And nearly everywhere the environment is deteriorating (UNDP, 2003).

International trade rules and institutions reflect an incipient effort to shape the global economy and move from national regulatory systems to international ones. As the International Council of Nurses (ICN) stated in 1999, much work remains to be done:

International trade agreements have traditionally focused on the trade of goods and commodities. The scope of these agreements has now expanded to include international trade in a broader range of services, including health services. A new generation of regulatory, labour, competition and quality assurance issues need to be addressed…

Internationally negotiated instruments generate opportunities as well as challenges. A real concern however is the extent to which such agreements weaken and/or restrict governmental input, professional regulatory mechanisms and the maintenance of non-profit, public social and health services (ICN, 1999).

Indeed, there is an increased urgency to the issues raised by the 1999 ICN position statement. Nurses are focusing on the socio-economic determinants of health and on environmental health on a global scale. Thus, the WTO’s Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations faces major challenges in shaping international rules that address human rights, share equitably the benefits and costs of economic integration, and bring the economy and the environment to a sustainable path.

Nursing organizations have raised serious concerns about the trade agenda. Such is the case with the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and other trade negotiations, and their impact on the future of national health services and on the quality of nursing services (RNAO, 2003). Nurses believe that international trade rules should not be used to encourage the privatization of health and social services but rather to strengthen publicly funded and controlled, accessible health services. Likewise, resources that are essential to health, such as water, should remain under public control. Concerns have also been raised about the impact of the WTO’s Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement on the efforts to address the HIV/AIDS and other public health crisis. New technologies, such as essential pharmacological drugs, should provide health for all.

Finally, nurses are concerned that trade agreements such as GATS and the FTAA may be used to promote the mobility of nurses from poor countries to rich countries. Nursing organizations respect the rights of nurses to work in whatever country they choose, and they support ICN’s position statement on ethical nurse recruitment (CNA, 2001):

ICN and its member associations firmly believe that quality health care is directly dependent on an adequate supply of qualified nursing personnel. ICN recognizes the right of individual nurses to migrate, while acknowledging the possible adverse effect that international migration may have on health-care quality. ICN condemns the practice of recruiting nurses to countries where authorities have failed to address human resource planning and problems that cause nurses to leave the profession and discourage them from returning to nursing (ICN, 2001).

Submitted by the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario