At the December 2005 Hong Kong ministerial meeting, developed countries forced through a controversial set of services demands thay prepared the ground for a final push to expand the GATS. This new paper analyses benchmarks, plurilateral request-offer, domestic regulation and other pressure tactics so that non-governmental organizations, elected representatives, developing countries and ordinary citizens can intervene to counter them.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
Crunch time in Geneva: Pressure tactics in the GATS negotiations
Sinclair S: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 21 June 2006
Developing countries propose new TRIPS clause to avoid bio-piracy
Shashikant S: Third World Network, 8 June 2006
A long-standing fight by several developing countries to amend the WTO's TRIPS Agreement to oblige members to get patent applicants to disclose the source of origin of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge took a step forward in early June when six countries proposed the text of new provisions to be added to the TRIPS Agreement. The paper takes forward in a text for amending the TRIPS agreement what several developing countries had for several years been arguing for in various fora within the WTO (as well as outside the WTO (for example, in the Convention on Biological Diversity and the World Intellectual Property Organisation).
Human rights and the establishment of a WIPO Development Agenda
3D: June 2006
Over the past two years, discussions on a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Development Agenda have provided a forum for Member States to challenge the current trends in intellectual property (IP) policy-making and work towards a system that is more consistent with development commitments and needs. The second session of the Provisional Committee on Proposals for a WIPO Development Agenda (PCDA), from 26 to 30 June 2006, will provide an opportunity for Member States to consider proposals in clusters of issues2 and submit a decision for a WIPO Development Agenda to the WIPO General Assembly in September 2006 that will dictate the future of these discussions.
Positions remain unchanged in TRIPS/CBD consultations
Raja K: Third World Network, 16 June 2006
A consultation held on 6 June at the WTO on the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) ended with positions among members remaining unchanged on the issue of disclosure of the source of origin of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge. A paper was presented by Brazil, India, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand and Tanzania (joined by China and Cuba). But the US, Australia and others said that negotiation based on any text is premature, as there were differences in views.
The view from the Summit: Gleneagles G8 one year on
Global Policy Forum, 9 June 2006
The July 2005 G8 summit in Gleneagles delivered promises on debt, aid, trade, security and climate change. This report examines progress one year later. Debt cancellation has resulted in extra spending on health and education in poor countries, but is not reaching enough of the world's poor. Aid figures show huge increases but include large debt write-offs for Iraq and Nigeria. Oxfam is concerned that the growth in aid in key G8 nations is not enough to meet the promises made at Gleneagles.
WHA forms working group on IPRs and health R&D
Third World Network, 17 June 2006
After a negotiating process that lasted many days and that was closely watched by dozens of health and development NGOs, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution on 27 May that established a working group to come up with a global strategy on intellectual property, health research and development, and new medicines for diseases that especially affect developing countries. The resolution was seen by many as the biggest achievement of this year's WHA, and was hailed by many public interest groups that had supported the developing countries, led by Kenya and Brazil, that had first advocated the resolution.
World Health Assembly adopts resolution tying public health to trade policy
Intellectual Property Watch, 27 May 2006
The World Health Assembly adopted a resolution that urges member states to improve coordination at the national level between international trade and public health, requesting the World Health Organization (WHO) to help its member states to do this. The resolution calls for governments to promote a better dialogue on trade and health, and gives health ministries a place at the table with other government agencies involved in trade issues, establishing mechanisms to enable this.
African workers and scholars unite
Bond P
At Workers University in Cairo, a mid-May gathering of 100 trade union leaders and intellectuals from across Africa adopted surprisingly common radical language, exhibiting a pent-up desire to jointly fight global neoliberalism. The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (Codesria) has been an extraordinary network for 5000 members who are the continent's core of progressive academics. The article provides a detailed recount and discussion of the various arguments and perspectives presented.
Further details: /newsletter/id/31531
Agreement Reached On IP And Public Health Resolution At WHO
Intellectual Property Watch, 27 May 2006: Gerhardsen, TIR
A technical group at the World Health Assembly in May agreed on a
resolution that will increase the worldwide research and development
focus on diseases that disproportionately affect developing
countries. Brazil and Kenya, which have been driving the issue,
welcomed the resolution,
COSATU memorandum on WTO handed to US embassy: Our World is Not For Sale
Congress of South African Trade Unions, 12 May 2006
The following memorandum was handed to His Excellency, Mr Donald Teitelbaum, Chargé d’Affaires, United States of America, on 10 May 2006, by COSATU Gauteng Provincial Secretary, Siphiwe Mgcina, at a picket of the embassy by COSATU members as part of the Jobs and Poverty Campaign. COSATU writes to bring to the reader's attention the potentially detrimental consequences of the memorandum to be faced by the various sectors in South Africa, and the rest of the countries in the South or the developing nations.