Tanzanian Members of Parliament have expressed disappointment with the influx of substandard and low quality foodstuffs into the country. This brief article voices concern for consequent adverse health outcomes. Sources said that some of the "dumped" foodstuffs were harmful to human life.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
Tanzania MPs concerned about junk goods flooding local markets
IPPMEDIA: Via Tralac
Toward a treaty on safety and cost-effectiveness of pharmaceuticals and medical devices: enhancing an endangered global public good
Faunce TA: Globalization and Health 2006, 2:5
Expert evaluations of the safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of pharmaceutical and medical devices, prior to marketing approval or reimbursement listing, collectively represent a globally important public good. The scientific processes involved play a major role in protecting the public from product risks such as unintended or adverse events, sub-standard production and unnecessary burdens on individual and governmental healthcare budgets. Most States now have an increasing policy interest in this area, though institutional arrangements, particularly in the area of cost-effectiveness analysis of medical devices, are not uniformly advanced and are fragile in the face of opposing multinational industry pressure to recoup investment and maintain profit margins. This paper examines the possibility, in this context, of States commencing negotiations toward bilateral trade agreement provisions, and ultimately perhaps a multilateral Treaty, on safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness analysis of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
WHO plea to drugs companies
Boseley S: The Guardian, 4 April 2006
Drug companies should not take out patents on their new medicines or enforce patents in poor countries if that is likely to prevent patients from getting them, an influential commission set up by the World Health Organisation said yesterday.
Counterfeit medicines: the silent epidemic
WHO News Release
WHO is calling for immediate action to combat the growing trade in counterfeit medicines, which now forms 10% of the global market for medicines. WHO aims to create a global task force to focus on legislation and law enforcement, trade, risk communications and innovative technology solutions, including public-private initiatives for applying new technologies to the detection of counterfeits and technology transfer to developing countries.
Donor Concern over IMF cap on aid increases
Joseph Hanlon
In a repeat of a crisis a decade ago, donors now fear that the IMF is blocking aid increases to Mozambique. With public pressure in several European countries for increased aid, and with problems in Ethiopia and Uganda tainting these former donor darlings, donors are anxious to pump more money into Mozambique -- especially as budget support. But the IMF says no -- it will not allow Mozambique to accept more budget support. Instead, it wants donors to fund more projects outside the state budget -- which goes directly against the policy of many donors.
Further details: /newsletter/id/31341
Highlights of the first tobacco treaty conference of the parties
WHO
On February 17th, 2006, the first Conference of the Parties (COP) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Geneva adopted 4 major decisions, including:
* establishing the permanent secretariat of the Treaty within the World Health Organization (located in Geneva);
* creating working groups that will begin development of protocols (legally binding instruments) in the areas of cross-border advertising and illicit trade;
* allowing the Conference of the Parties to assess progress made by countries in implementing the measures required by the Treaty; and establishing an ad-hoc group of experts that will study economically viable alternatives to tobacco growing and production.
Ignore the World Bank on health, says minister
The Standard, Kenya
Kenya should ignore donor restrictions and employ health workers needed urgently countrywide, an assistant minister has said. The country needs 10,000 health workers to offer improved services, Health assistant minister Enock Kibunguchy said. He said about 130,000 infants born yearly to HIV-positive mothers were not being cared for effectively for lack of medical staff. He said the scaling up of the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV could only be achieved if there was adequate personnel and infrastructure.
IMF study says big aid increases are OK
The Macroeconomics of Managing Increased Aid Inflows: Experiences of Low-Income Countries and Policy Implications
An IMF study released last August says that, contrary to IMF assumptions, low income African countries, including Mozambique, are able to manage significant increases in aid. A big increase in aid to Mozambique did lead to an increase in inflation, but this was brought back to a reasonable level, the study found, both by Bank of Mozambique actions and because fiscal expansion brought rapid GDP growth.
Further details: /newsletter/id/31308
Contact: j.hanlon@open.ac.uk
SA must push rich nations
Buisness Day
The European Union's (EU's) commissioner of trade called on SA in early February 2006 to use its considerable influence among developing countries to facilitate concessions in services and industrial goods in world trade talks. In a veiled threat, commissioner Peter Mandelson warned that developing countries should make concessions quickly or risk losing the gains made in the Doha round of negotiations to date.
Thai solidarity
PHA-Exchange
Thai AIDS activists and their international allies sought suspension of scheduled trade talks that threaten to undermine Thailand’s lawful ability to produce, import/export, and market low-cost generic versions of life-saving medicines. In January, in Chiang Mai, the United States and Thailand were scheduled to start the Sixth Round of negotiations on a proposed Free Trade Agreement, and were for the first time to hold discussions on a U.S. proposal to dramatically increase intellectual property protections for pharmaceutical products.