Developing countries are being shackled by regulations formulated and enforced by international organisations. Policies to nurture domestic industry, which were used in Europe, north America and more recently the successful East Asian 'tiger' economies, are becoming illegal. The three major agreements which emerged from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Uruguay Round of international trade talks - on investment measures (TRIMS), trade in services (GATS) and intellectual property rights (TRIPS) - are narrowing the powers of states. Governments now find it difficult to combine profit-oriented actions of companies within their borders with complementing national development strategies.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
The WTO Global Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and Health Equity in Southern Africa
PART I of this paper provides a brief introduction of the link between trade and development as related to health in general. The history of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is also briefly introduced as it relates to the General Agreement of Trade in Services (GATS). Then a brief outline of the contents of GATS is given focusing on those areas relevant to public health generally, to health services and to their financing. PART II presents opportunities and threats posed by GATS for public health and health equity goals and policies in southern Africa, in terms of both general obligations and specific commitments across all modes of supply.
** Globalisation, Trade and Health
Abstract of paper presented at the Equinet conference, Durban, 8-9 June 2004, by R Tayob SEATINI, EQUINET theme co-ordinator
This paper posits that the International Trading System (ITS) is biased in favour of richer northern states. It argues that greater circumspection is required by developing countries within the ITS if they want to maintain their sovereign right to meet the needs of their people. The inequitable system of “globalisation” is imposed through the ideology of neo-liberalism, which the developed countries present as a “natural” form of globalisation. It is a very particular type of globalisation that is being imposed on the world by the major economic powers, i.e. neo- liberal globalisation. This form of globalisation has worsened material conditions in developing countries.
Further details: /newsletter/id/30457
How Do Patents And Economic Policies Affect Access To Essential Medicines
This paper studies the relationship between patents and access to essential medicines. It finds that in sixty-five low- and middle-income countries, where four billion people live, patenting is rare for 319 products on the World Health Organisation’s Model List of Essential Medicines. Only seventeen essential medicines are patentable, although usually not actually patented, so that overall patent incidence is low (1.4 percent) and concentrated in larger markets. This and other results shed light on the policy dialogue among public health activists, the pharmaceutical industry, and governments that is often based on mistaken premises about how patents affect corporate revenues or the health of the world’s poorest.
The General Agreement On Trade In Services: Implications For Health Policymakers
The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), created under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation, aims to regulate measures affecting international trade in services - including health services such as health insurance, hospital services, telemedicine, and acquisition of medical treatment abroad. The agreement has been the subject of great controversy, for it may affect the freedom with which countries can change the shape of their domestic health care systems. This article explains the rationale behind the agreement and discusses its scope. It also addresses the major controversies surrounding the GATS and their implications for the U.S. health care system.
Debt for Aids swaps
Debt swaps exchange debt for some other asset or obligation. In the context of development, they normally involve countries negotiating cancellation of external debts in return for commitments on internal resource mobilization or some other government action. There has been considerable international interest in debt swaps and their potential to create a new and additional financing mechanism to help overcome long-standing barriers to development. The impact of AIDS on many developing countries, including many of the most indebted, has been severe. In the worst cases, AIDS has caused development progress to be set back by decades. There is therefore emerging interest in examining whether debt swaps are potentially useful new instruments to apply to the problem of AIDS and development. This is according to a UNAIDS policy brief on the issue.
Patam sends letter to African finance ministers
Finance Ministers that attended the World Bank spring meetings in Washington towards the end of April were urged by the Pan-African Treatment Access Movement (PATAM) to ensure that urgent attention be paid to building the internal capacity of African countries to marshal their own resources against HIV/AIDS, reject fiscal conditions that imply a decline in additional donated revenues for HIV/AIDS, demand full debt cancellation and upport efforts to highlight transparency, accountability and representation in the IMF and World Bank. PATAM send a letter to African ministers of finance which can be read by clicking on the link below.
Further details: /newsletter/id/30407
World Bank criticised for HIV/AIDS response
The World Bank failed to protect social spending during its structural adjustment operations in the 1980s and 1990s, and this led to the deterioration of basic services - including those needed for the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS. And instead of focusing on HIV/AIDS, the World Bank sought improvements in the way goods and services were provided and financed through health sector reforms, such as user fees, privatisation, decentralisation and integration of services. These reforms frequently had the unintended effect of reducing access to effective health care, including services aimed at the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS. This is according to a paper Produced by ActionAid that evaluates the response to the HIV crisis by the World Bank.
Globalisation, the international poverty trap and chronic poverty
This paper argues that the dollar-a-day poverty is pervasive and persistent in most Least Developed Countries because they are caught in an international poverty trap. It highlights the fact that poverty is perpetuated by vicious domestic circles through which the high incidence and severity of poverty constrain national economic growth, and that the current form of globalisation is tightening rather than loosening the international poverty trap. In response to this, the author states that policies underlying international development cooperation, focusing on Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) have not changed sufficiently to enable countries to escape the trap and realise the opportunity for fast poverty reduction through economic growth.
Issues and suggestions in trade and development
The Monterrey Consensus recognises the strong links between trade, finance and development issues. The challenge is to make trade, trade policy and trade rules work for development. This is a big challenge because many trade rules, for example in the WTO, and many trade policies, for example in structural adjustment conditionalities, are not yet aligned with development needs in the South, says a discussion paper submitted by the Third World Network to an informal meeting on financing for development.