[2019] Motion 15 The NHS and future trade deals

carried motion
Carried motion

Received from:

Congress is deeply concerned that our NHS is under threat from commercial interests on both sides of the Atlantic.

Furthermore, Congress is alarmed that during his visit to the UK in June, President Trump asserted that the NHS would be “on the table” in any future trade deals with the US “or a lot more than that”. Even though he appears to have backtracked on his statement, there remains concern over what exactly any future trade negotiations with the US would mean for the NHS.

Congress notes that it has been British governments that opened up the NHS to EU competition laws, leaving our health service more exposed to private intervention than any other EU country.

Our NHS is never safe during a Tory government whoever is prime minister. To keep our NHS public, we need a government committed to doing just that.

Therefore, Congress reasserts its policy that “we reject a vision of free trade” that “offers up public services like the NHS to rapacious multinational companies”.

Congress calls on the General Council to demand that the NHS is specifically excluded from any future trade deals.

British Dietetic Association