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Before the flood? The looming risk of corporations suing states for Covid-related measures
12-Sep-2022 Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
Now the Covid-19 pandemic is no longer in the headlines in many parts of the world, the risk corporations will use investment treaties to claim compensation from governments to cover their losses during these exceptional times is increasing.
WTO COVID IP negotiating text as of 25/5/2022
28-May-2022
Consolidated negotiating COVID intellectual property text as of 25/5/2022
AfCFTA Secretariat: Conclusion of AfCFTA Phase II negotiations our priority
23-Apr-2022 Business Ghana
Mr. Mene said, concluding the outstanding negotiations and protocols -phases I and II in full, would create robust implementation of the Agreement. while significant progress had been made with agreement of 87.7 per cent of tariff lines.
ISDS landscape in Latin America for 2022
21-Apr-2022 Kluwer Arbitration Blog
ISDS in Latin America is here to stay. While disputes in sectors such as pensions and telecoms are becoming more common in the region, we expect to see a ripening of COVID-related, tech and energy disputes.
Wamkele Mene: AfCFTA must set agenda on intellectual property and subsidies
12-Apr-2022 Africa Business
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is the world’s newest and most ambitious trade bloc, after the World Trade Organisation, its biggest, covering 1.2bn consumers in 55 countries that together generate annual GDP in excess of $3 trillion.
They concern you more than you know: On the perils and potential of international investment agreements for the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and COVID-19 discussions at the World Trade Organization
23-Dec-2021 IISD
Talks on a possible COVID-19-related TRIPS decision aimed at scaling up vaccine and therapeutics production and equitable distribution continue but investment agreements are absent from them.
When free trade is not free
21-Dec-2021 Mail & Guardian
If the states of the world take seriously their own rhetorical commitments to climate change mitigation, job creation, and sustainable development, they must reject the free trade paradigm.
33 groups call for tougher stance on vaccine apartheid in trade negotiations
13-Dec-2021 Scoop
33 domestic and international groups have written to NZ Prime Minister, calling for NZ to use its bilateral trade negotiations with the United Kingdom and European Union to push for an end to vaccine apartheid.
WTO response to the pandemic - Walker’s text 22/11/2021
23-Nov-2021
Walker’s text of 22 November 2021 on the WTO response to the pandemic
Debunking government claims on RCEP
3-Nov-2021 Rappler
As Trade Justice Pilipinas articulated in an earlier statement: “RCEP will further prop up a broken economic model that we need to radically transform in favor of one that is more resilient.”
Inside the French push for stronger trade with Kenya
1-Nov-2021 The Star
France-Kenya ties have intensified during the tenures of presidents Kenyatta and Macron. Franck Riester, France Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness, is leading a delegation to Kenya for a two-day visit.
India calls for IPR waiver in WTO, dismantling trade barriers in global fight against pandemic
12-Oct-2021 The HIndu
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday called for a waiver of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and dismantling new trade barriers in the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Multinational corporations and COVID-19: Intellectual property rights vs. human rights
20-Sep-2021 Socialist Project
Transnational companies today rely more than ever on IPR to structure their global value chains, writes Peter Rossman
The people of Asia against free trade: “society endures the trauma of debt”
13-Sep-2021 Capire
The struggle against free trade has been strategic for social movements, especially La Via Campesina, which has actually built a proposal for food sovereignty to counter the capitalist free trade model for agriculture.
Blockading global Green New Deals
19-Aug-2021 The Ecologist
Tackling trade and investment agreements must be an essential step in achieving justice-oriented action on climate change, health inequities and economic injustice.
French airport investors make good on earlier threat to bring treaty-based claims against Chile in relation to reduced air traffic during the COVID pandemic
17-Aug-2021 IA Reporter
Two French airport companies, Aeroports de Paris (ADP) and Vinci Airports, have initiated treaty-based arbitration proceedings against Chile, invoking the Chile-France bilateral investment treaty (BIT).
TRIPS Waiver: A BIT of a challenge for India
24-May-2021 The Wire
Potential BIT claims by foreign pharmaceutical companies against India for the revocation, suspension or non-enforcement of IPRs could undermine the benefits of a potential TRIPS waiver.
India has been short-changed by Vodafone and Cairn arbitral awards
27-Apr-2021 The Leaflet
The international economic law regime has stripped India of over $3.8 billion in taxes due by Vodafone and Cairn Energy, as the country is battling the Covid19 crisis.
Growing trade ties bind India to Africa’s future
14-Apr-2021 MENAFN
India has stepped up its global ambitions and foreign policy re-engagement with African countries in recent years. India is now the third largest export destination and the fifth largest investor on the continent.
Patently unfair: Can waivers help solve COVID vaccine inequality?
3-Mar-2021 Aljazeera
The WTO General Council gathered virtually on Monday for the first of two days of talks amid increasing calls from civil society, states and nongovernmental actors to temporarily waive patents for COVID-19 vaccines and other coronavirus-related medical products.