The United States of America has threatened Ecuador with trade sanctions if it introduces a resolution by the United Nations to encourage breastfeeding. The US delegation to the World Health Assembly in Geneva reportedly deployed threats including retaliatory trade measures and to pull military aid. While the resolution was expected to pass at the Assembly without any issue, the US delegation requested that language asking governments to "protect, promote and support breastfeeding" was removed.

According to a report in The New York Times, as Russia stepped in America eventually backed the resolution and did not launch similar threats. Following which advocates of breastfeeding babies have expressed outrage. The State Department declined to respond to questions, saying that it could not discuss private diplomatic conversations.

The breast milk alternative industry - mostly concentrated in the US and Europe- has been struggling with its sales in the recent years. It is still worth USD 70 billion annually. According to the report, global sales of the products are expected to rise by 4 per cent in 2018, according to Euromonitor.

The final resolution retained most from the original one other than a portion calling on the World Health Organization to provide support to member states seeking to halt "inappropriate promotion of foods for infants and young children" being removed.

The resolution is based on decades of research which says that mother's milk is healthiest for newborns and countries should try to decrease the inaccurate or misleading marketing of breast milk alternatives. Public health officials and foreign diplomats expressed shock in the US administration's opposition to the breastfeeding resolution. Proving mother's milk to children has been one of the World Health Organisations'  (WHO) longstanding policy.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 09, 2018 07:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).