CNS: FTA

Showing posts with label FTA. Show all posts

Women's groups resistance to mega free trade deal signals alarm

Shobha Shukla, CNS (Citizen News Service)

Governments' promise for sustainable development is questioned by the manner in which they are chasing a mega free trade agreement which in its current form, will exacerbate inequities and injustices on the ground.

Mark Moreno Pascual, CNS Correspondent
The recently concluded Transpacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will expand corporate profits at the expense of peoples rights. A new addition to the growing number of free trade agreements (FTAs) took centre stage last Monday as the United States and 11 Pacific Rim countries announced the conclusion of a mammoth trade deal that covers more than 40% of the global economy.

International trade impacts tobacco control

Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service - CNS

The tobacco industry has a history of using international trade agreements to force open new markets in low and middle income countries, greatly increasing tobacco use and the consequent death/disease it causes. Tobacco companies are also challenging measures to reduce tobacco use as violations of trade and investment agreements, threatening the authority of nations to protect the health and well-being of their citizens.

Shobha Shukla, CNS Columnist
Well, any right-minded person would say NO. But the global, as well as the local media, has castigated India for not ratifying the Protocol of Amendment for the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) at the recent World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations in Geneva in July 2014, and for linking it to discussions for a permanent solution to the G-33’s Food Security Proposal. India’s refusal to tow the line of developed countries has caused worldwide uproar.

Anand Grover is a lawyer from India who is known for his legal activism in Indian law relating to HIV. He is a co-founder member of the Lawyers Collective and has been UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health since 2008. He spoke with the ICAAP11 Insight team as the 11th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (11th ICAAP) got underway, stressing two points that are likely to feature in discussions this week.

Bobby Ramakant - CNS
7 May: World Asthma Day
Asthma causes disabling symptoms in millions of people who struggle to breathe, making ordinary activities extraordinarily difficulty – things like going to school, working at a job, looking after children or aging parents, running or even walking. About 235 million people in the world suffer from asthma and the number is increasing – asthma is a neglected epidemic.

Socialist Party (India) demands ending imports from China

In wake of Chinese intrusion into 19kms of Indian territory, the Socialist Party demands that the Government of India must stop all imports of Chinese goods into India. Banares Sarees, Holi 'pichkaaris, woolen clothes, religious statues, various kind of electronic goods, etc are some examples where our markets are flooded with Chinese products. We do not support direct military action at this stage and believe that the dispute should be resolved through bilateral negotiations. But we do support and demand policies which should protect our local markets of small and middle scale industries and local craft artisans across the country. Such a decision will strengthen our economic power. Banning imports from China and promoting domestically produced products will give double boost to our economy and put more pressure on China to respect international borders including India’s.

Socialist Party (India) strongly supported the Supreme Court decision to uphold access to essential medicines and deny patent protection to dummy innovations as claimed by Novartis. Justice (retd) Rajinder Sachchar also extended his support to Socialist Party's position. Novartis had sought a patent for Imatinib (brand name Gleevac or Glivac) which noted lawyer and UN Human Rights Commissioner Anand Grover said was the same molecule with little ‘tweaking’. The cost of this drug is INR 120,000 per month for blood cancer (leukemia) patients. After Supreme Court ruling the price of drug may fall steeply from INR 120,000 to perhaps INR 8000 – this is a huge step forward in terms of advancing access to essential medicines and also in protecting public health from interference from profit-driven corporations and markets.

Despite all efforts to increase access to affordable antiretroviral (ARV) pills over the past years, all people living with HIV (PLHIV) who need them most are still struggling to have them in developing countries. The access to these essential medicines is further decimated by the ever changing rules on trade globally. Brazil was a pioneering country where a compulsory licensing mechanism was opted specifically for Efavirenz and this led to the reduction in the cost of the drug and helped put many more PLHIV on treatment within same resources. According to Francisco Viegas Neves da Silva, this initiative on putting flexibility in the TRIPS is economically efficient while at the same time, improved access to drugs. This pioneering action of Brazil inspired community activism for greater access to life saving drugs.

Some of the loudest and most passionate demonstrations at the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) condemned the United States and European Union trade agreement negotiations which aim to protect the profits of pharmaceutical companies and let people in low and middle income countries die for their sake. During her address to the conference, Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, with an air of optimism, joined the call for an "AIDS free generation", highlighting the fact that the tools for its achievement exist. At the same time, her government, through negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), is pushing to radically expand pharmaceutical company monopolies and therefore maintain high prices on and limited access to life-saving medicines for HIV and associated co-morbidities. "Today US trade policy is threatening to undermine US AIDS policy," said Peter Maybarduk of Public Citizen, a prominent US consumer rights group.

In recent years, India’s trade policy is being determined more and more by Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) which threatens access to essential medicines, seeds, and domestic micro, small and medium enterprises. India is currently engaged in negotiating such bilateral agreements with several countries, having already signed FTAs with some of them. The latest, and also the most hotly debated, is the one it is negotiating with the European Union (EU). FTAs are trade agreements between two countries which aim to give each other access to markets by lowering or removing border protection measures, such as border taxes on exports and imports, and other barriers.

A National Workshop on the provisions, linkages and possible impacts related to India’s Free Trade Agreements and Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) was recently organized in Delhi, by Third World Network, in partnership with Traidcraft Exchange (UK) and Shramik Bharti, (Kanpur) and supported by the Commonwealth Foundation, Network for Social Change and the Heinrich Boll Foundation. The purpose of the workshop was to flag issues related to free trade agreements (FTAs) and facilitate a dialogue between different stakeholders with a view to protect the interests of MSMEs in FTA negotiations, by playing a role of intermediaries between government and entrepreneurs. However, the presence of a mere 5 entrepreneurs in the workshop, did rob it off some valuable inputs.

'Production of quality affordable generic medicines is key in access to life saving /life-extending treatments for people who need it, and narrow national economic interests should not take precedence over a global commitment to save lives of People Living With HIV (PLHIV)...'. This message was brought out clearly at the recently concluded 10th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (10th ICAAP), held in Busan, Korea.

The Busan Police turned violent on peaceful demonstrators at the 10th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (10th ICAAP), which was attended by over 2500 delegates and one of whose main issues is to protect the human rights of populations affected with HIV/ AIDS. Activists including people living with HIV (PLHIV) from all over the world, who attended the 10th ICAAP joined Korean activists in a peaceful anti-Free-Trade Agreements (FTAs) march. Korea is in the process of signing FTA treaties with USA and the European Union (EU), and this is likely to block the production of generic medicines and increase the prices of essential medicines including antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, thus further limiting their access to those for whom they are intended.

Tobacco giants, who always put profit ahead of lives and health, are invoking investor-state dispute mechanisms in bilateral investment agreements to challenge moves of governments which are aimed at controlling the widespread use of tobacco products. This scary development highlights the dangers of signing trade or investment treaties which could give corporations the right to sue governments over legitimate health or other public interest regulations.

Border Measures in Free Trade Agreements Will Impede Access to Affordable Generic Medicines

The European Union (EU) is now pushing for stricter border measures for IPR enforcements in the EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations, which will impact access to generic medicines.
Stringent EC Customs Regulations that allow European customs officials to detain generic medicines at transit points have been in place since 2003. This has resulted in detainment of many legitimate generic drug shipment of antibiotics and AIDS drugs, which were only in transit through the EU (going from one developing country to patients in other developing countries), on the grounds that they infringe European intellectual property law (patents and trademark). Later, it turned out that the medicines were not in violation of IP laws of the sending and recipient countries involved, but were legitimately produced by mainly Indian generic companies and were being imported by Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Nigeria and other developing countries at affordable prices.

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and health – more leverage required

Bobby Ramakant - CNS
Currently, a number of developing nations are negotiating many economic agreements with other countries or blocks of countries. Another alarming fact is that there is marked reluctance to divulge details about these negotiations, and harsh measures are taken against public health activists who demand their say.More than eighty per cent of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs purchased by the Global Fund are coming from such nations such as India where threat from such economic agreements looms large. According to Loon Gangte of the Delhi Network of People living with HIV (DNP+) and International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC – South Asia), "The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (The Global Fund) should look into it that more than 80% of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs purchased by it are coming from India and today we are at a very serious juncture with Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union. Although there are communities fighting against the FTAs from around the world but there is no serious position from the Global Fund against FTAs." Read more

Published in:
Citizen News Service(CNS), India/Thailand
Health Dev.net, Thailand
Aids Space.org
Aids Portal.org

Human Rights: A La The European Union Style

In a significant development, the European Parliament (EP) has linked the Kashmir dispute with the signing of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India. According to a news (Source: The Nation, 14 June 2011), the para-33 of the resolution passed by the European Parliament on May 11, 2011, over the FTA between India and European Union, states that "Human rights, democracy and security are essential elements of the relationship between EU and India. Therefore we call on both the sides to ensure that dialogue on open issues is stepped up with particular reference to Kashmir".

Thirty years into the AIDS epidemic, and 10 years since the landmark UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, the UN organized a High level Meeting on AIDS from 8–10 June 2011 in New York to review progress and set targets and commitments for the coming years on HIV prevention, treatment care and support. Member States are expected to adopt a new Declaration that will reaffirm current commitments and commit to actions to guide and sustain the global AIDS response to “Zero New Infections – Zero Discrimination – Zero AIDS Related Deaths”.