[Digital-health-wg] PHM Digital Working Group: WTO, digital trade rules and health

[Susana Barria]

Dear all,

This is a gentle reminder for our PHM digitalisation working group monthly
meeting *tomorrow, 7 October from 12 noon UTC*. Thanks to Abbas for sending
the link for the meeting.

We thought we could take time in this meeting to discuss the implications
of the World Trade Organisations' discussions on digitalisation (or
e-commerce) on health systems, considering that the WTO MInisterial
Conference is scheduled to take place next month, from 30 November to 3
December.

For a few years, digital trade rules are the new cutting edge of the free
trade agenda, and with the expansion of digital technologies in health, the
implications of these rules are taking more relevance for health activists.
PHM's trade and health circle identified the WTO Ministerial Council as an
important opportunity to put forward the PHM position on a series of key
issues, including on digital trade rules and health. We are proposing that
this group can provide advice on the issue.

In order to get the discussion going, we invited digital trade rules
expert, *Sanya Reidh-Smith, from Third World Network*, to join the meeting
and make an initial intervention on the digital trade rules at WTO and
their implications for health systems. This will be followed by a
discussion on the implications of these rules for health systems in our
different countries / regions, and finally, a more strategic discussion on
our possible contribution to PHM's work on this issue.

For a general introduction to digital trade rules,you can see: Digital
Trade Rules: A disastrous new constitution for the global economy written
by and for Big Tech <https://ourworldisnotforsale.net/digital-trade-rules>
and more references are available here:
https://ourworldisnotforsale.net/digital.

Hope you will find this discussion useful and look forward to your
participation tomorrow.

Kind regards,
Junhoo and Susana
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