Newsletter Edition #338 [The Files In-Depth]
Readers,
Earlier this week, we published a guest piece on using health as a strategic leverage. At the WTO, some developing countries exercised precisely such a leverage last month.
Can negotiations on preserving policy space for public health be used as a leverage against the imposition of customs duties on electronic transmissions? While the jury is still out on this, such a dynamic did unfold at the WTO Ministerial meeting last month. Read on!
My colleague Devika Agarwal, one of the fellows who has joined us this year has also worked on this complex story.
There are two parts to this edition: Part I where we unpack the drama; Part II, where we look closely at the technical details and examine the potential implications.
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Priti Patnaik, Founder & Publisher, Geneva Health Files
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Presenting our weekly in-depth analysis on global health that captures the big picture and the nuances like no one else does. This is an exclusive edition for our subscribers.
How A Few Developing Countries Tied The Protection of Policy Space in Public Health With Duties on E-Commerce: A Tale of Two Moratoriums at the WTO
By Priti Patnaik
PART I: LEVERAGE AS A CURRENCY IN TRADE DIPLOMACY
International trade is in choppy waters. The institution that finds itself at the centre of that perfect storm of geopolitics and mercantilism, is the World Trade Organization. The 166-member organization recently concluded its 14th Ministerial Conference in Cameroon, albeit without a ministerial declaration or final decisions on key trade issues. Unresolved matters are expected to continue in Geneva.
In this story, we unpack the drama around the two moratoriums in the WTO system, that were up for consideration – a moratorium on the Non-Violation And Situation Complaints (NVCs), and one on the moratorium on duties for e-commerce (on electronic transmissions).
The moratorium on NVCs under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) has direct implications for public health, including whether countries will have sufficient policy space to take decisions to put health over trade. (We use "TRIPS moratorium" interchangeably with the "moratorium on NVCs" for simplicity.)
In a deft move, a few developing countries tied the fate of the TRIPS moratorium with that on e-commerce.
The Ministerial Conference, normally held every two years, is the highest decision-making body of the WTO. Nearly 2,000 trade officials, including more than 90 ministers, attended the four-day MC14 in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Diplomatic sources in Geneva told us that the meeting was emblematic of the times we live in – a stage where bilateral considerations also affected multilateral outcomes, with potential implications for global health.