Trade and public health

As the number of new negotiations of regional trade and investment agreements has grown in recent years, evidence is mounting about their implications for population health.A linked CMAJ article by Barlow and colleagues is the latest to examine trade and investment policy as a plausible causal driver of diet-related health outcomes through high-sugar, high-fat and high-sodium food products. The authors found that even the minor reductions in tariff rates brought in by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on products such as high-fructose corn syrup, a common additive to sugar-sweetened beverages and other highly processed food products, were strongly associated with the increased supply of such commodities into Canada.