The head of the European Union (EU) delegation to Tanzania, Ambassador Timothy Clark, says a realistic timetable for signing the East African Community’s (EAC) interim economic partnership agreements (EPAs) must be established. Clark said: 'The situation, as it stands now, is untenable. EAC countries, despite not signing the EPA, have been enjoying free access to EU markets in the same way with other African, Carribean and Pacific (ACP) countries that took legally binding commitments by signing EPAs. This is inconsistent and contrary to both EU law and World Trade Organization rules.' However, Tanzanian Trade Minister, Mary Nagu, said the EAC wanted firm commitments from the EU on development assistance before it would sign a full agreement, including assistance for infrastructure, such as properly working railways and ports to enable Tanzania to trade. She called for a level playing field for Tanzanian trade, with Tanzania enjoying an equal footing with the EU. She did not see aid as a long-term solution to the country's financial woes. Despite the current situation, withdrawing trade preferences provided to the EAC under the EU’s EPA market access regulation is reported to require a unanimous vote by EU Member States, which may prove politically difficult at present.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
Worldwide sales of counterfeit medicines could top US$75 billion this year, a 90% rise in five years, according to this article. The World Health Organization (WHO) is currently working with Interpol to dislodge the criminal networks making billions of dollars from the trade in counterfeit medicines and posing a growing threat to public health. In 2006, the International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force (IMPACT) was launched, drawing members from international organisations, enforcement agencies, industry and nongovernmental organisations. Sabine Kopp, IMPACT’s interim executive secretary and manager of WHO’s anti-counterfeiting programme, says that WHO is currently conducting a survey to compare legislation and terminology used to combat counterfeiting of medical products in different countries. It is difficult to measure the extent of the problem when there are so many sources of information and different definitions of 'counterfeit'.
In this article discussing aid for trade (AfT) initiatives between European and African states, the author points out that AfT may be misused, as it aims to integrate developing countries into global markets, which serves the interests of the Western world as they view these African states as (future) trading partners and as drivers of the global trade policy agenda they serve. Another risk of AfT is that it tends to underestimate the potential of domestic markets. For instance, the rapidly growing population and urbanisation in many African countries creates great opportunities for domestic farmers and food industries. The AfT agenda also adds to the increasing number of ‘vertical’ initiatives, such as the fund for HIV and AIDS or infrastructure. This leads to a segmentation of development cooperation, while efforts instead should seek to make aid more flexible by aligning it to developing countries’ priorities without earmarking it in advance for certain thematic issues. For all these reasons, the authors recommend a very careful, transparent and participatory use of the AfT initiative. Trade and AfT are not ends in themselves, but means to achieve the ultimate goal of reducing poverty. Hence, AfT must be embedded in overarching national growth and poverty strategies which balance inward and outward orientation of national economies and ultimately aim to generate resources for social development and poverty reduction.
This piece sends a warning signal on the issue of patenting on trade agreements. Far-reaching provisions on the patenting of medicine have been inserted into a controversial free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and Colombia and Peru. While less ambitious on patenting and with shorter durations of exclusivity than proposals earlier put forward by EU, in the agreement makers of branded drugs will enjoy ‘test data exclusivity’ over the scientific formulae they have used and will be able to delay generic versions of their products from appearing on the market. This data exclusivity will apply for five years, increasing the amount countries spend on medicines in the period, despite high poverty levels. The concern for Africa is that this agreement sets an unfortunate precedent for countries concluding trade agreements with the EU, notably the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, to avoid such clauses which undermine their efforts to meet the health care needs of their citizens.
This article argues that climate change and aid for trade financing initiatives can be used in a complementary manner to overcome their weaknesses and promote synergies in affected countries. Most less developed countries (LDCs) are more concerned with day-to-day survival than with climate change. A number of these countries have received Aid for Trade (AFT) to help them invest in trade-related economic infrastructure and to build supply-side capacity. Climate change and aid for trade financing initiatives are argued to need greater coherence and complemetarity. One step, it is argued in this paper, is for aid-for-trade initiatives operating largely at the bilateral level in what is argued to be a rather uncoordinated manner to be more formalised and multilateral.
The author of this article believes that trade in services will play a more prominent role in the economic development of the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) countries in the coming years. He calls for special attention to be given to strengthening capacity and improving competitiveness in African countries and to providing appropriate flexibility in the sequencing of liberalisation commitments. Services account for between 30% and 60% of the GDP in African countries. Countries with a more developed services sector have tended to adopt an offensive stance in trade negotiations on services, such as with the EU, while the majority of states have favoured a defensive posture. This latter group argues that liberalisation of services trade should be preceded by capacity building to develop the necessary regulatory framework, given that this is lacking in many African countries. Trade liberalisation should not, in their view, be viewed as a magic wand that will inevitably lead to the development of their nascent services sector.
The degree and pace of liberalisation necessary for a free-trade agreement (FTA) to comply with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules (especially Article XXIV of GATT) remains an important discussion point in EPA (economic partnership agreement) negotiations. This article helps clarify the different interpretations of Article XXIV by analysing some 40 free-trade agreements notified to the WTO, including interim EPAs. Developing countries can make proposals for flexibilities in the FTAs they negotiate with developed countries. The concept of asymmetry justifies this approach, and these flexibilities are an important means for adjusting to liberalisation that goes beyond WTO requirements. Two WTO legal texts can be used as a basis: on the one hand, the enabling clause which states that ‘contracting parties may accord differential and more favourable treatment to developing countries, without according such treatment to other contracting parties’, and, on the other hand, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which allows some flexibility to developing countries depending on their global and sectorial and subsectorial development level. At a time when the West Africa and Central Africa EPA negotiations have stalled over provisions that would provide more flexibility, the analysis of the FTAs notified to the WTO reveals that there is room to manoeuvre. Indeed, the precedent set in some FTAs is a basis for understanding and accepting the ACP’s request to liberalise 60% – and not 80% – of their market or to benefit from a 25-year transition period.
In this report, the authors allege relief for Indian generic drug manufacturers, as five East African countries – Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Sudan – refused in a health meeting to endorse a proposal by the East African Community (EAC) to introduce an anti-counterfeit products law. The law, which could have potentially blocked exports of generic drugs from India because of a lack of clarity on what is counterfeit, had worried the Indian drug industry ever since the 2007 draft proposal by the EAC. East African countries together contribute almost one-fifth of India's Rs40,000 core drug exports. Kenya passed a similar law in 2008 that Uganda had used as a model for its own draft Bill last year, and which was due for implementation this year. The Ugandan Bill has been sent back for review. The members of the East African states present at this regional health meeting refused to endorse the draft proposal and demanded that the definition of generics be what WHO [the World Health Organization] stipulates. The views of trade ministers are, however, not made clear in the report.
This fact sheet contains vital information on counterfeit medicines, especially regarding identification of these medicines. Counterfeit medicines are medicines that are deliberately and fraudulently mislabelled with respect to identity and/or source. Use of counterfeit medicines can result in treatment failure or even death. Public confidence in health-delivery systems may be eroded following use and/or detection of counterfeit medicines. Both branded and generic products are subject to counterfeiting. All kinds of medicines have been counterfeited, from medicines for the treatment of life-threatening conditions to inexpensive generic versions of painkillers and antihistamines. Counterfeit medicines may include products with the correct ingredients or with the wrong ingredients, without active ingredients, with insufficient or too much active ingredient, or with fake packaging.
A member of the European Parliament is reported to have argued that trade agreements must not contain clauses on intellectual property rights that could imperil poor people's access to affordable medicines. A veteran member of the European Parliament (MEP), David Martin, is reported to have expressed concern about ‘data exclusivity’ requirements, whereby major pharmaceutical companies would be able to block India’s generic medicines industry from using the formulae with which new drugs are developed for a period of several years. This is because India is a leading exporter of low-priced generic medicines to other developing countries, and such provisions have repercussions for those countries to which generic medicines from India are provided, including African countries.