Trade impacts: health vs. profit dilemma
For optimal
nutrition, for immunisation and for bonding, infants need to be breastfed. Yet
for every child that is exclusively breastfed for six months, an average of $450
(U.S.) worth of infant food will not be bought and on a global scale that
means billions of dollars in profit will not be made. It has been calculated
that the annual value of commercial infant foods currently promoted for use by
infants between the ages of four to six months is at least one billion U.S.
dollars. The adoption of the World Health Assembly Resolution incorporating the
recommendations of the Expert Consultation will send a strong message to the
November meeting of the UN Codex Alimentarius Commission. The proposed
Resolution calls on Member States: “to encourage the Codex Alimentarius
Commission to take the International Code and relevant subsequent Health
Assembly resolutions into consideration in developing its standards and
guidelines.” The UN Codex Alimentarius Commission sets food standards and is
due to discuss whether complementary foods should be labelled for use from “4
months” or “6 months” at its November meeting. The industry has been pressing
WHO Member States and Codex for a standard allowing labeling of complementary
foods from “4 months” despite the scientific evidence of the risks associated
with early complementary feeding. If the industry succeeds, it could attempt to
argue that the Codex standard should prevail to protect existing sales,
estimated to be worth $1-billion (U.S.). The industry might also attempt to use
World Trade Organisation rules (which look to Codex standards) to challenge the
policies of the 61 countries which already promote exclusive breastfeeding until
six months of age, to enable further expansion of sales.
Brazil, a model for breastfeeding support, first put the Resolution before the Assembly in May of 2000, and was delighted with the unanimous passage, as the U.S. put aside its earlier objections and joined the consensus. Cesar Victora, epidemiologist at the University of Pelotas, Brazil, noted, “I am really pleased to see that scientific evidence can result in changes in a global policy ... for 15 years we have been accumulating evidence on the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding and it is a great pleasure that this has at last led to a change in global policy. The scientists’ greatest frustration is when our studies do not result in changes in the real world.”
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