International trade regulation and publicly funded health care in Canada

The World Trade Organization (WTO) creates new challenges for the Canadian health care system, arguably one of the most "socialized" systems in the wo rld today. In particular, the WTO's enhanced trade dispute resolution power s, enforceable with sanctions, may make Canadian health care vulnerable to corporate penetration, particularly in the pharmaceutical and private healt h services delivery sectors. The Free Trade Agreement and its extension, th e North American Free Trade Agreement, gave multinational pharmaceutical co mpanies greater freedom in Canada at the expense of the Canadian generic dr ug industry. Recent challenges by the WTO have continued this process, whic h will limit the health care system's ability to control drug costs. And pr essure is growing, through WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services and moves by the Alberta provincial government to privatize health care delive ry, to open up the Canadian system to corporate penetration. New WTO agreem ents will bring increasing pressure to privatize Canada's public health car e system and limit government's ability to control pharmaceutical costs.