Managing Fragmentation between International Trade and Investment Law and Global Priorities for Noncommunicable Disease Prevention in Food and Alcohol

This article examines three ways in which instruments developed by international health organizations might be used to manage fragmentation between health and international trade and investment law in the context of regulating food and alcohol as noncommunicable disease risk factors. These are: by modifying or overriding trade and investment obligations, affecting interpretation and fact finding, and establishing cooperative inter-institutional processes. The article assesses the advantages and disadvantages of each of these approaches for managing fragmentation under the rules of treaty interpretation and dispute settlement. It argues that while much of the discussion of fragmentation between trade and health focuses on treaty interactions, many of the actual uses of health instruments are not necessarily dependent on their formal legal status. It then proposes several features of international instruments that might strengthen or support these uses, whether through binding or through non-binding instruments.