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Conflict has become an integral part of the global health discourse. It is therefore not surprising that as the premier organization to govern health, WHO has had to find ways to navigate messy geopolitics.

In today’s edition, our final story from the recently concluded WHO Executive Board meeting, we bring you up to speed with WHO’s Global Health and Peace Initiative.

The context in which this discussion is unfolding is striking given the simultaneous conflicts in different parts of the world. But laid over the complex dynamics in global health, these conflicts serve to bring into clarity where member states of WHO stand in relation to each other, and in relation to the mandate of the WHO.

Major funders of WHO, are also masters on the geopolitical chess board. But this contradiction does not sit well on the ground, such as in Gaza, for example.

With only 10 official negotiating days left, the Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations (WGIHR) is under pressure to reach agreement on changes to the rules that govern global health emergencies.

The seventh WGIHR meeting which began on Monday officially kicked off the 2024 pandemic ‘season’ negotiations at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva.

It’s a short, intense season though, with the grand finale for both the IHR amendments and the pandemic accord set for the May World Health Assembly.

As Eswatini pointed out, the WGIHR only has 10 official negotiating days left until May, and by Friday, this time will be halved. 

Addressing the equity-related gaps in health emergencies should be prioritised, stressed Eswatini, speaking for the 47 African member states and Egypt (part of WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean region).

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have an opportunity at the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in February 2024 to grant an extension to the much-embattled Waiver to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The Waiver, proposed more than three years ago, was intended to allow countries and their pharmaceutical firms to manufacture and distribute generic versions of COVID-19 products to their populations more freely.

Recently, the international community quietly passed by the 22nd anniversary of the conclusion of the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health in November 2023. The Doha Declaration, originally adopted at the insistence of the Africa Group, was a landmark moment in international cooperation in which the members of the WTO agreed (in principle) that public health should not be undermined by a narrow reading of global rules governing intellectual property (IP).

African countries are currently considering provisions in the AfCFTA and at the WTO to liberalise digital trade. As they face mounting fiscal pressures, it is imperative that they beware the implications of digital trade provisions for their ability to tax their digital economy. In this paper, we develop a comprehensive framework for analysing the impact of trade rules on tax regimes in the digital economy, with a focus on Kenya, Rwanda, and South Africa. We explore how trade rules ostensibly shape tax policies and their implications for revenue generation. By examining rules regulating trade in services and the imposition of customs duties on electronic transmissions, we identify how these rules may directly impact tax policies and limit revenue generation possibilities. Moreover, digital trade rules, such as those related to data flows, localisation, and source code sharing, have the capacity to produce both indirect and administrative effects on tax measures. These rules can alter tax structures, taxation rights, data collection, and the capacity to monitor and implement tax measures.

Corporate Greed and Rich Countries’ Cowardice Lead WTO to Abandon  Proposed Sharing of COVID Treatment Technologies

For Immediate  Release: Jan. 30, 2024  

Contact: Emily Leach, mailto:eleach@citizen.org 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last night, news broke that the World Trade  Organization (WTO) is preparing to reject a proposal that would have  relaxed pharmaceutical monopolies and supported global sharing of  COVID-19 therapeutic and diagnostic technologies. 

In response, Global Trade Watch director Melinda St. Louis issued the  following statement: 

The World Health Organization (WHO) announces the Health Technology Access Pool (HTAP) as the successor to the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP).

C-TAP was launched in May 2020 by WHO, the Government of Costa Rica and other partners to facilitate equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 health products for people in all countries. The platform provided a much-needed forum for technology partners to voluntarily share intellectual property, knowledge, and data in order to accelerate technological innovation and expand access to COVID-19 tools.  

Despite the challenges faced in establishing a novel mechanism during a pandemic with limited resources, C-TAP secured 6 transparent, non-exclusive global licenses involving 15 technologies that span R&D tools, diagnostics, and vaccines –  including the first from a private manufacturer. HTAP builds on the foundation laid by C-TAP while incorporating structural, process and other changes that will enable it to attract and support a diverse range of priority technologies more effectively.  

Developed countries have managed to push the TRIPS waiver talks over the precipice.

After an arduous push uphill since the time developing countries led by South Africa and India, first brought the proposal to the WTO in October 2020, the “waiver” talks will soon be concluded, failing to reach consensus among members. (The original proposal had sought a time-bound temporary waiver of certain IP rules boost production of COVID-19 medical products.)

In its wake, however, the long-running “Waiver” discussions have revitalized, and brought under the scanner the relationship between intellectual property and public health. It has also entrenched further, the turf wars in the policy spheres of health and trade.

The 15 January 2024 chair’s text (INF/ECOM/85) for the Joint Statement Initiative (JSI) on electronic commerce is to be discussed in a round from 30 January to 2 February 2024. This is not an agreed text. It is the work of the co-convenors from Australia, Japan and Singapore.

The previous consolidated text of 15 November 2023 (INF/ECOM/62/Rev.5) was produced after the US notified the withdrawal of its support for several core provisions relating in particular to data. The current chairs’ text centres on the more transactional provisions of that text, plus making the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions permanent. The cover note says the remaining provisions have not been dropped and remain “a comprehensive record of proposals, attributions and drafting notes”.

Some provisions still have placeholders for further discussion in the January round.
Significantly, the outstanding provisions include development, exceptions and the scope of the agreement – all fundamentally important, especially for developing countries.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is struggling to control a far deadlier form of mpox, known as clade one, which is spreading unchecked

Children account for a majority of infections and deaths in the world’s worst mpox outbreak, which is “accelerating” at a far greater rate than previously assumed, new figures show.

Mpox is best known for the outbreak that erupted internationally in 2022, predominantly spreading in gay and bisexual men.

But the Democratic Republic of Congo is struggling to control a much deadlier form of mpox, known as clade one, which has been spreading unchecked in the population for many years.

e one, which is spreading unchecked

At a meeting of the agriculture negotiating body on 30 January open to all delegations, the Chair, Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy of Türkiye, introduced a draft negotiating text for members' consideration. Trade officials present welcomed the draft, which they said could serve as a useful basis for the negotiations among WTO members ahead of the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13), from 26 to 29 February.

Chair introduces draft text for agriculture negotiations in run-up to MC13

"With only four weeks to go before the 13th Ministerial Conference, the negotiations are entering their final stretch. It’s time to focus on what could be achievable at MC13, and also pave the way for a more substantial outcome at MC14," the Chair said. WTO ministerial conferences, which are the organisation’s highest decision-making body, are normally held every two years.