Commerce, Economy, Trade and Public Health Conference

The policies and practices of public and private market actors have significant bearing on the state’s capacity to promote and protect human health and the healthiness of the environments in which people work, live, and play. This conference will focus on the interface between commerce, economics, trade,  and public health, and in particular how these priorities and actions can be balanced to improve outcomes equitably within and across societies. Commerce, economy and trade directly touch on many aspects of public health and its regulation, including access to medicines, prevention of non-communicable diseases, political and commercial determinants of health, health security, public procurement, and pandemic preparedness, as well as structuring the broader socioeconomic and political conditions that shape human health and health equity. There is a need to understand the diverse impacts of commerce, economy and trade on health, and to equitably protect and promote health through improved policy coherence. The aim of the conference is to bring together current learnings and build a public health research agenda on market/commercial domains and human health. Areas of action that will be explored throughout the conference include strengthening governance for health, the interface between health and trade & investment, Indigenous knowledge and perspectives, equity of outcomes, political economy, the role of tax and finance systems, management of conflicts of interest, and redressing power relations within and between the public and private spheres. Contributions relevant to these topics are sought from those involved in public health, social science, political science, law and policy research.