NHS protections just got taken out of the Trade Bill - so what next for a deal with the US?
By Ben Horton, Just Treatment leader
The Trade Bill returned to the House of Commons yesterday (Tuesday 19th January), where Conservative MPs voted unanimously to reject an amendment to protect the NHS and voted down another which would have given MPS scrutiny over future deals.
Introduced by the House of Lords, the NHS protection amendment would have banned any future trade agreement (with the US or otherwise) that undermined or restricted the UK's ability to provide “a comprehensive publicly funded health service free at the point of delivery,” as well as protecting the sale of patient data and safeguarding the cost of drugs to the NHS.
“Joe Biden’s presidency is being touted as a return to ‘business as usual’ for the US - but that doesn’t necessarily bode well for the NHS in post-Brexit Britain.”
Greg Hands, the Minister of State, Department for International Trade again stated that “the NHS is not on the table. The NHS is not and never will be for sale,” characterising any suggestion that it would be further opened up to private foreign interests as “offensive and absurd.” Which begs the question, why not legislate against it?
With NHS protection and wider scrutiny amendments having just been kicked out of the Trade Bill by MPs, it’s looking increasingly like a deal with the US could give US lawmakers - and the powerful pharma lobby - more say over our health policy than their British counterparts. Joe Biden’s presidency is being touted as a return to ‘business as usual’ for the US - but that doesn’t necessarily bode well for the NHS in post-Brexit Britain.
So what’s the latest on a US trade deal?
As the U.S. went to the polls back in November - approximately 100 years ago - much of the discussion was focused around whether or not Trump would accept anything less than a Republican landslide as a legitimate outcome.
Since then, and in spite of a series of limp legal challenges as well as January 6th’s grim and confusing storming of the capitol, Joe Biden has cinched a narrow but convincing win and has just been inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States.
“there was hope for a so-called ‘mini deal’ between the UK and the US that would have been a big PR coup for the UK government”
Meanwhile the UK has kicked off the new year in dynamic style with a double serving of immiseration in the form of a third nationwide lockdown and the advent of Brexit.
The consequences of the latter are still emerging, but as the UK uncouples from the EU the Conservative government is looking to shore up its economic standing by establishing new trade deals with other countries - and the US is top of their list.
Prior to the election, there was hope for a so-called ‘mini deal’ between the UK and the US that would have seen the relaxation of certain tariffs and would have been a big PR coup for the UK government, one that they could point to as exemplary of the country’s new, dynamic role on the global stage.
However, progress on this was somewhat scuppered by the events of January 6th. The outgoing administration had much bigger fish to fry domestically, and Trump’s lacklustre condemnation of the grab-bag of QAnon followers and White Supremacists who rioted in DC has taken the sheen off of any potential deal as a political prize for the UK government.
So what now? And what does any of this have to do with the NHS?
Simply put, the terms of any future UK-US deal will have massive ramifications for US healthcare and pharmaceutical firms’ access to the NHS.
The Conservative government has repeatedly said that the NHS is ‘not for sale.’ This may be technically true but it’s really just sleight of hand - US businesses aren’t looking to buy the NHS, they’re focused on extracting as much money from it (and by extension you, the taxpayer) as possible, through mechanisms such as the loosening of laws and strengthening of monopolies around drug pricing.
The UK government remains extremely keen to nail down a trade deal with the US, and to do so before the Biden administration’s ability to ‘fast track’ a trade deal expires on July 1st.
“The Conservative government has repeatedly said that the NHS is ‘not for sale.’ This may be technically true but it’s really just sleight of hand”
Team Biden, however, might not be able to muster the same enthusiasm as they contend with skyrocketing COVID numbers and attempting to quell tensions with Iran, stirred up by Trump’s outbound State Department. Furthermore, Biden has signalled his priorities will be closer to home at the outset of his presidency, saying in a recent NYT interview: “I’m not going to enter any new trade agreement with anybody until we have made major investments here at home and in our workers and in education."
Enter the CPTPP
As the UK scrabbles around for new trade agreements to offset the shock of leaving the EU, one avenue that is looking increasingly likely is its entry into the CPTPP - the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership - a snappily-named trade bloc that includes Canada, Mexico, Vietnam and Chile amongst others.
The CPTPP would be a poor replacement for EU membership in terms of trade volume as most of its members are relatively small and far away from the UK, but more crucially for the NHS, the US may seek re-entry to the CPTPP under Biden (the Obama administration joined it in its previous iteration, the TPP, before a hasty withdrawal overseen by Trump.)
The significance here is of the rules laid out within the CPTPP and how they could be leveraged by US pharmaceutical companies to rip off the NHS. Most notably, the CPTPP includes Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) procedures, which give pharmaceutical giants the power to sue governments for ‘discriminatory practices’ - often code for regulating in the interests of their population instead of big business - and could likely be wielded against the NHS.
So where do we go from here?
The Trade Bill will return to the House of Lords in February, where there’s a slim chance that amendments on scrutiny and the NHS could be reinserted - though there’s no guarantee that they would get voted through by MPs in the House of Commons a third time round.
Protecting the NHS and guarding against high drug prices is a key battleground and we must ensure that our political representatives hear our demands on this front. That’s why Just Treatment is launching a campaign for an NHS New Deal that would put the health of patients above those of big corporations. If you want to get involved in making sure that our NHS is properly protected, properly funded, and not opened up for private profit then just click here to join us.