Given India's victory against Novartis in the drug company's challenge to section 3d of the India Patent Act and given Thailand's highly publicised campaign to issue compulsory licenses on both AIDS and heart disease medicines, we are now seeing a new wave of patent withdrawals and a growing wave of compulsory licenses. This reciprocal wave action creates a wider opening for continuing access to newer and lower costs medicines. But the promise of this opening will only be realized if more countries amend their patent acts to take advantage of the TRIPS-compliant, definitional flexibilities that India has enacted and if more countries use the TRIPS compliant flexibilities for issuing compulsory licenses for generic medicines that Thailand has used.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
The Executive Council of the African Union was reported in January to have resolved that no African region should be allowed to sign the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union "as long as the draft agreement is not submitted and discussed at the continental level". The council believed that the signing of any interim or complete EPAs will affect other regions in Africa, recommended "the need for a political intervention at the highest level to protect the interest of African countries."
A brief look at each of the six negotiation regions gives a more detailed picture of the current state of play on the EPA negotiations. While all parties remain committed to concluding comprehensive EPAs, as confirmed in the joint review endorsed in May 2007, progress in the negotiations has been slower than expected. By October 2007, it became apparent that EPAs would not be concluded by the target date of 31 December 2007, set by the expiry of the WTO waiver covering the current preferential trade regime of Cotonou. In reaction to this, the European Commission issued a communication on 23 October 2007, which outlines a pragmatic approach to safeguard preferential market access for non-LDC countries from 1 January 20081. The communication aims at concluding WTO-compatible goods market access arrangements to be in order to extend the negotiation time towards complete EPAs while avoiding adisruption in trade. In line with this approach, a number of interim agreements were concluded over the last weeks of 2007 between the EU and ACP regions, subregions and individual countries. Trade in goods is the only key area that needs to be covered by an agreement to comply with WTO rules. Other areas, on which agreement has been found, are included in most interim agreements. The interim agreements contain rendezvous clauses to continue negotiations in 2008 towards full EPAs. A brief look in this report at each of the six negotiation regions gives a more detailed picture of the current state of play on the EPA negotiations.
Policymakers from the EU and developing countries, together with non governmental organisations and academics, met from 21-24 January at Wilton Park for a strategic and creative dialogue on the effectiveness of European development policy. With input from the Department for International Development and the European Centre for Development Policy Management, the group discussed Europe's development agenda and potential reforms. The group considered ways to improve aid effectiveness in preparation for the Paris commitment review meeting in Accra in September: the closing session was led by the Ghanaian Finance Minister.
With less than seven years to go before the attainment of the universal millennium development goals (MDGs), the southern Africa region is still battling with infrastructure issues which might stifle the region’s progression towards the achievement of the goals. In its January policy briefing Building Bridges Out of Poverty, the Southern Africa Trust examines how transport, energy and water infrastructure in the region can facilitate intra-regional trade and investment as well as sound management and development of water resources. This article discusses how infrastructure development can strengthen regional integration to overcome poverty in southern Africa.
The European Commission’s demand for Most Favoured Nation (MFN) treatment for European Union in all future free trade agreements (FTAs) between SADC EPA countries and any third parties are among the main reasons why Namibia failed to initiate the Interim Economic Partnership Agreement (IEPA) with EU. Acceptance of such an offer, Minister of Trade and Industry, Immanuel Ngatjizeko said at a press briefing in mid-December 2007, would pre-empt Southern African Development Community (SADC) EPA countries’ negotiating space as EPA-plus preferential treatment would be accorded to the EU without any further concession from the EU side.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has launched a multi million dollar fund for import-dependent poor countries to help adapt their farming industries quickly to cope with galloping global food prices. Concern is mounting at the FAO that poor countries’ food needs will not be met by outside production this year as prices for basic commodities such as wheat are rising and supply is limited, FAO director general Jacques Diouf said in the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou on 12 January.
Current debates about the potential positive and negative implications of agricultural biotechnology for human nutrition do not seem to be well informed by lessons learned from the Green Revolution. This paper will examine the following question: what was learned from the Green Revolution concerning its effects on food consumption and/or nutrition? 2) In what respects is the agricultural biotechnology issue similar to the Green Revolution? 3) In what respects is it different? 4) Under what circumstances (if any) do you think it would be appropriate to introduce genetically engineered crops into the farming systems of developing countries? 5) What are the pros and cons of the preceding recommendation?
In the morning of the second day of the EU-Africa Summit representatives from the side-events got the opportunity to present their views to the Heads of States and Governments. Civil Society Organisations, Youth, Trade Unions and the Private Sector got three minutes respectively. Alpha Omar Konaré, president of the African Commission expressed that he was very happy with the fact that there were ‘many voices’ of civil representation - entrepreneurs, the youth and various associations - that are involved in the partnership between the two continents and ready to collaborate so that this cooperation between Europe and Africa can develop in a positive way for all parties. He also quoted the Civil Society Declaration, mentioning the lack of power equilibrium between both Continents.
Have traditional restrictive macroeconomic policies and budget ceilings limited some governments from giving HIV/AIDS the attention it deserves? This paper analyses the links between macroeconomic frameworks provided by the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and HIV social spending in Ghana and Malawi. It reviews major channels through which fiscal and monetary policies impact on public expenditure frameworks and how this, in turn, affects the ability of the countries to design and implement public programmes for those living with and affected by AIDS. Authors stress the need for a fundamental shift in the design and execution of the macroeconomic framework.