RESEARCHERS from the Australian National University (ANU) have backed the introduction of a sugary drinks tax as a new study reveals nutritional health risks to people in the Asia-Pacific due to modern trade policies which opens the region to a flood of ultra-processed food and drinks. 
Researcher professor Sharon Friel says it’s a health disaster waiting to happen.
“Companies are focusing their efforts in Asia because of the large market opportunities and growth in consumption that has still to happen.”
The study looked at sales and company data from transnational food and beverage companies. It found that in China, expenditure on food services, such as companies like KFC and McDonald’s, increased eighteen-fold from US$1.90 per person in 1999 to US$34.80 per person in 2013.
“Many countries, particularly lower-middle income ones, are having increasing issues with diet related diseases such as cardio-vascular disease, heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers,” Friel says.
The Coca-Cola Company had sales in 2013 of more than US$16 billion in the Asian region, 18 per cent of their world sales.
Friel and fellow researcher Dr Phillip Baker said the huge growth of sales of these types of food and drinks has major health implications for people in Asia.
“In Australia we have fairly strong health systems that can respond to these health issues, but in many Asian countries they just haven’t got the capacity in their health systems – this will widen the health inequities,” Friel says.
Friel and Baker are calling for stronger health regulations across the region including in Australia.
“We need to start looking at policies that mitigate the health risks of these types of products,” Friel says.
“We need to look at introducing a tax on sugary drinks.”
A study published in Plos Medicine February 2017 found that taxes on saturated fat, salt, sugar, and sugar-sweetened beverages and a subsidy on fruits and vegetables would avert almost half a million disability-adjusted life years in Australia, at a net cost-saving of AU$3.4 billion to the health sector.
Friel says governments must respond to protect the health of their populations through fiscal, marketing and health policies, and is calling on Australia to lead the way by introducing a tax on sugary drinks.
Investment by food and beverage companies is facilitated by trade and investment agreements.
Friel says governments need to think about the trade and investment agreements they are signing, what they will mean for domestic health policy, and how they can protect human health.
In April 2016 the United Nations declared a UN Decade of Action on Nutrition to help achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
The study, Food systems transformations, ultraprocessed food markets and the nutrition transition in Asia, has been published in the Globalization and Health journal.
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