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Nearly two years’ worth of negotiating will conclude next week at the World Trade Organization’s 13th ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where trade ministers could be leaning toward agreements on fisheries subsidies and a path forward on reform issues as the fate of a moratorium on e-commerce transmission duties hangs in the balance.

The ministerial kicks off on Monday and is scheduled to run through Thursday, though it is not uncommon for ministers to extend talks if they are making progress.

Most of the optimism about negotiations this time around centers on supplementing the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies. That deal, reached at MC12 in June 2022, did not include provisions on subsidies that contribute to overfishing and overcapacity. Addressing those types of subsidies has been a priority for members ever since.

We, fisherfolks organizations and civil society groups in Indonesia are worried about the fisheries subsidy agreement at the WTO which will prohibit fisheries subsidies for small fisherfolks. In Indonesia, small fisherfolks are fishers who use fishing vessels under 10 GT and the number of small fisherfolks is 90% of the total number of fishers. It is recorded that 2.4 million fishers and 3.9 million fishers women in Indonesia will be affected by the elimination of fisheries subsidies by the WTO.
Small fishers are the most vulnerable group in the capture fisheries sector who also experience poverty and extreme poverty. So a different approach and treatment is needed for small fisherfolks in obtaining rights and protection from the state. We know that there are two pillars in this fisheries subsidy agreement that have reached conclusion, so we firmly ask the Indonesian government not to ratify the two pillars of the WTO fisheries subsidy agreement.

The WHO pandemic instrument should commit the Parties to limit the exclusionary effects that government-granted patents and other IPRs may have during pandemics in support of rapid diffusion of new vaccines, diagnostics, medicines and other tools and facilitate collaboration and freedom to operate. The current draft text of Article 11 would not make any change to the status quo.

WTO electronic commerce negotiations (draft chair’s text, 21 February 2024)

1. The stated objective of the investment facilitation (IF) disciplines is ‘facilitating the flow of foreign direct investment between Members/Parties, particularly to developing and least developed country Members/Parties, with the aim of fostering sustainable development’ (see Article 1 under WTO document INF/IFD/W/52). Yet, the way the disciplines have been designed does not effectively serve this projected objective. Instead, it exposes developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs) to extensive burdens of implementation, especially because the institutional and administrative approaches required by the disciplines are generally based on practices applied in developed countries. Overall, the disciplines focus on the obligations of host States of investors and keep largely unaddressed any real or hard requirements for home States of investors. There is nothing in the text that would require home States of investors to properly regulate the conduct of their nationals abroad so as to avoid harm that might emerge through their investments and to hold them to account in case they are involved in such harmful activities.

The National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission  launched by the Union government in July 2023 focuses on “Eliminating sickle cell disease as a public health problem in India before 2047 “ as well as addressing the significant health challenges posed by sickle cell disease. ¹

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited blood disorder, that results in modest anaemia, often referred to as sickle cell anaemia. This condition alters the shape of red blood cells, causing them to become rigid and sticky, potentially leading to either slowing or blocking of blood flow that affects organs and causes acute painful episodes. The disease is associated with a significant risk of early childhood mortality, primarily due to infections like pneumonia. Survivors may face chronic organ damage, resulting in a notable reduction in life expectancy.

Proposed design elements for the Pandemic Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) System disregard key features of the comprehensive PABS proposal which has garnered support from at least 72 developing countries.

The Vice-Chair and Co-Facilitators of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) on a new pandemic instrument jointly drafted the proposed design elements for the PABS system. These proposed design elements undermine the efforts of developing countries to lock in concrete mechanisms that will operationalise equity during a public health emergency/pandemic.   

As WHO member states begin the final lap of intense negotiations on reforming the governance to health emergencies, the burden of expectations to reach an agreement in less than three months is getting acute.

Time is of essence and yet….

It is still not certain whether discussions at the forthcoming meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, will result in concrete negotiations. We are effectively at the doorstep of the May 2024 deadline.

It is baffling that at this late stage of these discussions towards a new pandemic agreement, the plan for next week appears to be unclear with many countries not having enough clarity on the modalities of the process as they head into the two-week marathon negotiations this month. At a briefing this week, the INB Bureau reportedly said that the upcoming meeting will aim to bring countries closer on conceptual issues and that text-based negotiations is expected during the subsequent INB meeting in March.

In this edition, we bring you a primer on the state of play in these discussions and also discuss text of the proposals that will be considered next week.

The consensus is that there is no consensus.

This really is the story from the WTO on whether temporary clarifications in intellectual property rules be extended for the production and supply of COVID-19 tests and treatments.

The global health ecosystem gets curiouser and curiouser.

In today’s edition, we bring you an update from the WTO TRIPS extension discussions - where countries agreed that there has been no consensus on the decision.

On the same day, February 14th, that WTO members met for a General Council meeting in Geneva, effectively noting the end of the TRIPS Waiver discussions, an ill-timed tweet from the WTO sparked off a kerfuffle on social media. The international trade body with 164 members, got some hate on Valentine’s Day for putting out “pro-patent love tweets”. This is a serious misstep in institutional communication in such a polarized atmosphere.