Trade and Health in the Pacific
Forum on Trade and Health in the Pacific: PACER Plus - Should we be worried?
Melbourne, 12-13 April 2010
For background information see the resource page Pacer Plus: Should we be worried about the impact on health in the Pacific?
PHM Oz collaborated with the Institute for Human Security and the Public Health Association of Australia to organise a free public forum on trade and health in the Pacific, held in Melbourne on 12-13 April 2010.
This forum brought together researchers, activists and health professionals from Australia and the Pacific to consider a range of health issues at stake in the current renegotiation of the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) as PACER Plus.
Sponsoring organisations and groups included:
- The La Trobe University Institute for Human Security
- The Victorian Branch of the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA)
- The Political Economy of Health, Primary Health Care and International Health Special Interest Groups of PHAA
Day 1 (12 April) included presentations by expert speakers from both Australia and Pacific Island Countries on health issues including:
- Nutrition and health in the Pacific
- Tobacco and alcohol exposure
- Implications of foreign investment in health care
- Labour mobility and ‘brain drain’
- Economic development and health
- Gender inequality
Day 2 (13 April) involved small group discussions focused on planning for research and advocacy.
