Trade unions and health workers are increasing their pressure to make the small group of rich countries blocking the TRIPS waiver proposal back off
While the recently cancelled WTO Ministerial Council was supposed to discuss the TRIPS waiver, its agenda included other topics that should be taken seriously by health activists
Demonstrations calling for Germany to stop blocking patent waiver for COVID-19 vaccines were held in the US capital, Washington DC, among other places, as German chancellor Angela Merkel made an official visit to the US to meet president Joe Biden
In this episode, we take you to Geneva where the member states of the World Trade Organization met to discuss a proposal to waive certain intellectual property on COVID-19 vaccine production during the pandemic. We also look at Bolivia where dozens of intellectuals, experts and political leaders from across the world participated in the “Re-encounter with Pachamama” on April 22, Earth Day.
What is standing in the way of expanding production and carrying out mass vaccination campaigns across the world?
A proposal made by India and South Africa in October last year to waive certain Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of COVID vaccines has gained massive support across the world. Despite its potential to prevent millions of avoidable deaths, the US and its allies continue to block the proposal at the WTO.
Trade policy expert Professor Biswajit Dhar, Chief Editor of Newsclick Prabir Purkayastha and Benny Kuruvilla from Focus on the Global South discuss the implications of RCEP
Trump faces negative legal judgments about his “trade war,” and the US economy slips into negative territory. Meanwhile, China has emerged as the major driver of the global economy
Deborah James talks about proposed changes in global rules in the World Trade Organization
Trump is trying to improve his waning electoral chances by reserving all of Gilead’s stock of Remdesivir to cover up his disastrous handling of the Covid-19 epidemic so far
Vijay Prashad talks to Brasil de Fato on the nature of the crisis COVID-19 has brought, the obscene structural discrimination and loot that characterize capitalism, and the path before the Left during and after these times
What prevents any country from making drugs and vaccines, once developed? Is it the threat of the US, or the belief that in the US-China vaccine war, they need to be on the US side?