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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.

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.

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

… U.S. negotiators working on a global treaty that aims to guide the world’s response whenever a new deadly pathogen emerges have rejected proposals to loosen patent protections, a step that could enable developing countries to quickly make their own versions of the vaccines and drugs. For those countries and their advocates, it’s a striking stance — given what happened after Covid arrived: They shared data about new variants only to see the rich world hoard most of the vaccines. “There’s a contradiction, [an] enormous amount of hypocrisy,” said James Love, director of Knowledge Ecology International, who advocates for wider access to health products, of the Biden administration’s position. Love said the U.S. has used some of the same measures developing countries have proposed to limit intellectual property rights in the production of Covid vaccines at home. 

Poland on Thursday suggested that it might be better to delay the approval of a new World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic accord, beyond the planned May 2024 deadline – so as to get to an “ambitious, clear and consistent” agreement. The Polish trial balloon seemed to break ranks with the drumbeat of recent statements by WHO and other member states that negotiations should conclude this year – even if the present pathway to rapid agreement seems strewn with obstacles – including only a few more planned meetings of WHO  member state negotiating teams.

World Trade Organization negotiators have identified several “concepts” that could be the basis for a “viable solution” to the question of what the appeals stage of the dispute settlement system will look like, the facilitator of the reform talks said on Friday, adding that a deal on that issue is possible before the 13th ministerial in one month -- if members work with enough “determination.”

The WTO Appellate Body has been largely defunct since December 2017, as the U.S. has maintained a block on filling vacancies on the body across two administrations, leaving more than 30 appealed disputes in limbo. The fracture of the dispute settlement system sparked a reform effort, which has produced a draft text that identifies a number of procedural and operational improvements to the system, although it does not yet include any outline of a new or reformed appeals stage.

1. Suman Majumdar

   Brendan Crabb

2. Emma Pakula

   Stuart Turville

Since it was detected in August 2023, the JN.1 variant of COVID has spread widely. It has become dominant in Australia and around the world, driving the biggest COVID wave seen in many jurisdictions for at least the past year.

India on Tuesday proposed a decision for the World Trade Organization’s 13th ministerial conference that would extend the multilateral work program on e-commerce but, notably, would not also extend the moratorium on imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions.

The “draft ministerial decision” from India, dated Jan. 23, says WTO members “agree to build on the progress since last Ministerial Conference and intensify the work under the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce ... particularly in line with its development dimension.”

“We instruct the General Council to hold periodic reviews based on the reports that may be submitted by the WTO bodies entrusted with the implementation of the Work Programme and report to the next session of the Ministerial Conference,” the proposal adds.

Scholarship on the social determinants of health and disease has become firmly established over the past several decades.