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Global health governance confronts two long-term problems. One of them is a growing fragmentation and misalignment of agendas and initiatives. The other is a problem of power, encompassing accountability, transparency, and meaningful voice. Inevitably the two problems are linked, and nowhere more so than when it comes to the financing of global health agendas. Each of these problems have intensified since the pandemic, as identified by numerous commissions and initiatives including the International Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response and the more recent Future of Global Health Initiatives process.

Research and development (R&D) needed to manufacture and deliver key pandemic response products (PRPs) such as diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics requires access to novel pathogen samples and their genomic sequencing data (GSD). Yet, many low and middle-income countries (LMICs) understandably do not want to share pathogens and GSD unless they can ensure that the benefits of R&D will be equitably distributed.

Judging by the Chairpersons’ Summary circulated at the end of the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) on 24 October, attempts appear to be underway to transform the World Trade Organization (WTO), a multilateral trade body, into a plurilateral organization at the upcoming WTO’s 13th ministerial conference (MC13).

While the chair of the World Trade Organization’s General Council (GC) and the WTO Director-General said on 24 October that the two-day Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) ended on an optimistic note with clear guidance going forward, the Chairpersons’ Summary issued by them has raised some serious questions.

See full report for further details on Dispute settlement, TRIPS, Agriculture, Development, Fisheries subsidies, WTO reform, JSIs

Geneva, 24 Oct (D. Ravi Kanth) -- The high-profile meeting of capitalbased senior officials on 23 October apparently failed to decide on any deliverable in agriculture for the World Trade Organization’s 13th ministerial conference (MC13), to be held in Abu Dhabi in February next year, as seemingly deep differences came into the open on food security, the permanent solution for public stockholding (PSH) programs for food security, the special safeguard mechanism for developing countries, and domestic support, said participants familiar with the discussions

The United States has announced that it is withdrawing its proposals on cross-border data flows, location of computing facilities, and source code from the Joint Statement Initiative (JSI) negotiations on electronic commerce.

Given the paucity of time and the seemingly unbridgeable differences over several provisions in the chair’s draft text on fisheries subsidies, the chances of concluding an agreement on fisheries subsidies at the upcoming WTO’s 13th ministerial conference (MC13) seem to be rather bleak.

Sangeeta Shashikant

The findings of the report from the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) relating to COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics affirm the insufficiency of existing initiatives such as voluntary licenses, tier-pricing and access schemes of international organizations in facilitating prompt access to these medical products in developing countries.

The United States, the European Union, and several South American countries allegedly blocked attempts by the Chair of the Doha agriculture negotiations to kick-start discussions on the permanent solution for public stockholding (PSH) programs for food security.

Most commodity-dependent developing countries (CDDCs) appear to be trapped in a state of commodity dependence, with diversification eluding the majority of these countries for decades, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).