Global Trends
By MARTIN KHOR
A South Centre conference last week warned that developing countries could be badly hit by the new global downturn, and also discussed the state of WTO negotiations.
THE global economic downturn and the international negotiations on trade and climate change were the topics of a South Centre conference last week.

It provided an interesting discussion on the state of the world from the perspective of developing countries at the start of this year.

The conference, attended by over a hundred policy makers, diplomats and experts, was held on Feb 2-3 at the United Nations building in Geneva.

In a session on instability and downturn in the world economy, the South Centre’s chief economist Dr Yilmaz Akyuz warned that the South’s concept of decoupling its growth from the developed economies could lead to complacency.

While in the past decade the growth rates of developing countries stood at about 5 percentage points higher than those of developed countries, this was largely due to favourable external conditions that are no longer sustainable.

Among the conditions were the US acting as locomotive to export-dependent developing countries, a surge in private capital flows to developing countries and massive rises in commodity prices as well remittances to developing countries.

As these factors fade, or even reverse in the current global downturn, developing countries have to deal with emerging problems while devising longer term development strategies such as reducing dependence on Western markets and finance and upgrading investment (for those which are under-investing) or consumption (for those which are under-consuming) and boosting industry.

International Labour Organisation director-general Juan Somavia urged developing countries to safeguard their space to implement their own policies and to use this space well in this period of crisis.

He advocated switching to a growth pattern that is job-intensive and income-led.

Growth should be designed to generate jobs and raise wages, increase social protection and put a higher value to work.

Charles Soludo, former Central Bank governor of Nigeria, warned that the downturn would force many developing countries into a new debt crisis.

This time, there was little hope of external help. And in Africa, the situation may be worsened by the economic partnership agreements being foisted by the European Union that would further constrain Africa’s policy space.

Nagesh Kumar, chief economist of Escap (the UN commission for Asia), said the downturn would affect Asia through the trade and finance channels, warning that many of the remedies used in the 2009 crisis were no longer available.

Malaysian economist Lim Mah Hui analysed three major imbalances (including income inequality) and stressed the role of the state in industrial policy and to regulate finance to serve the real economy instead of speculation.

The conference discussed the impasse in the Doha Round and the future of the World Trade Organisation.

A panel of ambassadors from China, India, Nigeria, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Bolivia, and South Africa seemed to have similar opinions.

They agreed that the Doha Round impasse would continue for some time.

While attempts are made to revive the Round, developing countries should resist attempts by developed countries to introduce new issues such as investment, new plurilateral agreements inside WTO, or to re-examine the status of developing countries.

Meanwhile, the members should make WTO more development-centred by resolving issues of interest to least developed countries by improving special and differential treatment for developing countries and tackling agricultural protection in developed countries.

Rubens Ricupero, former Unctad secretary general, recalled his warning a decade ago that the Doha Round was one Round too many and too early, as WTO members should have focused instead on digesting the Uruguay Round and its unfinished business.

WTO would survive as it had a useful role. It should focus on the unfinished business of agriculture, tariff peaks, anti-dumping and issues that would link trade and development.

Trade expert Chakravarthi Raghavan said the Doha Round was introduced by developed countries to evade their commitment made during the Uruguay Round to cut their agriculture subsidies and tariffs.

The Doha negotiating agenda had been loaded with so many other issues and now could not be completed, thus allowing developed countries not to undertake their agriculture commitments.

This was bad faith on their part and developing countries should respond, for example, by not implementing the intellectual property agreement.

The conference ended with a session discussing the current climate change negotiations.

A panel of experts and negotiators analysed the process and outcome of the Durban climate conference and made suggestions on how developing countries should interpret the mandate for new negotiations so that the equity principle and concerns of developing countries could be successfully addressed.

source:http://thestar.com.my/columnists/story.asp?col=globaltrends&file=/2012/2/6/columnists/globaltrends/10684367&sec=Global%20Trends

What is the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)?

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a secretive, multi-nation trade agreement that threatens to extend restrictive intellectual property laws across the globe.

The nine nations currently negotiating the TPP are the U.S., Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, and Brunei Darussalam. Expected to be finalized in November 2011, the TPP will contain a chapter on Intellectual Property (copyright, trademarks, patents and perhaps geographical indications) that will have a broad impact on citizens’ rights, the future of the Internet’s global infrastructure, and innovation across the world. A leaked version of the February 2011 draft U.S. TPP Intellectual Property Rights Chapter indicates that U.S. negotiators are pushing for the adoption of copyright measures far more restrictive than currently required by international treaties, including the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

The TPP will rewrite the global rules on IP enforcement. All signatory countries will be required to conform their domestic laws and policies to the provisions of the Agreement. In the U.S. this is likely to further entrench controversial aspects of U.S. copyright law (such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s broad ban on circumventing digital locks and frequently disproprotionate statutory damages for copyright infringement) and restrict the ability of Congress to engage in domestic law reform to meet the evolving IP needs of American citizens and the innovative technology sector. The recently leaked U.S. IP chapter also includes provisions that appear to go beyond current U.S. law. This raises significant concerns for citizens’ due process, privacy and freedom of expression rights.

The leaked U.S. IP chapter includes many detailed requirements that are more restrictive than current international standards, and would require significant changes to other countries’ copyright laws. These include obligations for countries to:

Treat temporary reproductions of copyrighted works without copyright holders’ authorization as copyright infringement. This was discussed but rejected at the intergovernmental diplomatic conference that created two key 1996 international copyright treaties, the WIPO Copyright Treaty and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.
Ban parallel importation of genuine goods acquired from other countries without the authorization of copyright owners.

Create copyright terms well beyond the internationally agreed period in the 1994 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of IP. Life + 70 years for works created by individuals, and following the U.S.- Oman Free Trade Agreement, either 95 years after publication or 120 years after creation for corporate owned works (such as Mickey Mouse).

Adopt laws banning circumvention of digital locks (technological protection measures or TPMs) that mirror the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and treat violation of the TPM provisions as a separate offence, even when no copyright infringement is involved. This would require countries like New Zealand to completely rewrite its innovative 2008 copyright law. It would also override Australia’s carefully-crafted 2007 technological protection measure regime exclusions for region-coding on movies on DVDs, videogames, and players, and for embedded software in devices that restrict access to goods and services for the device — a thoughtful effort by Australian policy makers to avoid the pitfalls experienced with the U.S. digital locks provisions. In the U.S., business competitors have used the DMCA to try to block printer cartridge refill services, competing garage door openers, and to lock mobile phones to particular network providers.
Adopt criminal sanctions for copyright infringement that is done without a commercial motivation, based on the provisions of the 1997 U.S. No Electronic Theft Act.

Adopt the U.S. DMCA Internet Intermediaries copyright safe harbor regime in its entirety. This would require Chile to rewrite its forward-looking 2010 copyright law that currently provides for a judicial notice and takedown regime, which provides greater protection to Internet users’ expression and privacy than the DMCA’s copyright safe harbor regime.

In short, countries would have to abandon any efforts to learn from the mistakes of the U.S. experience over the last 12 years, and adopt many of the most controversial aspects of U.S. copyright law in their entirety. At the same time, the U.S. IP chapter does not export the limitations and exceptions in the U.S. copyright regime like fair use, which have enabled freedom of expression and technological innovation to flourish in the U.S. It includes only a placeholder for exceptions and limitations. This raises serious concerns about other countries’ sovereignty and the ability of national governments to set laws and policies to meet their domestic priorities.

Non-Transparent and On The Fast Track

Despite the broad scope and far-reaching implications of the TPP, negotiations for the agreement have taken place behind closed doors and outside of the checks and balances that operate at traditional multilateral treaty-making organizations such as the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade Organization.

Like ACTA, the TPP is being negotiated rapidly with little transparency. Since 2009 when United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk notified the U.S. Congress that President Obama intended to begin talks on TPP, there have been five formal rounds of TPP negotiations in Melbourne, Australia (March 2010), San Francisco, USA (June, 2010), Brunei (October 2010), Auckland, New Zealand (December 2010), and Santiago, Chile (February 2011). The negotiating countries hope to complete the TPP agreement by the 19th meeting of the Economic Leaders of APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to be held in Hawaii in November, 2011.

In the meantime, further negotiations are planned for March 24 – April 1 (round 6, Singapore), 20 – 24 June (round 7, Vietnam), 6 – 11 September (round 8, San Francisco, USA), and 24 – 28 October (round 9, Lima, Peru).

During the TPP negotiation round in Chile in February 2011, negotiators received strong messages from prominent civil society groups demanding an end to the secrecy that has shielded TPP negotiations from the scrutiny of national lawmakers and the public. Letters addressed to government representatives in Australia, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand and the U.S. emphasized that both the process and effect of the proposed TPP agreement is deeply undemocratic. TPP negotiators apparently discussed the requests for greater public disclosure during the February 2011 negotiations, but took no action.

Why You Should Care

TPP raises significant concerns about citizens’ privacy, freedom of expression and due process rights, innovation and the future of the Internet’s global infrastructure, and the right of sovereign nations to develop policies and laws that best meet their domestic priorities and enable access to knowledge for the world’s citizens.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is pursuing a TPP agreement that will require signatory counties to adopt heightened copyright protection that advances the agenda of the U.S. entertainment and pharmaceutical industries, but omits the flexibilities and exceptions that protect Internet users and technology innovators.

The TPP will affect countries beyond the nine that are currently involved in negotiations. The new TPP agreement will build upon a 2005 agreement between New Zealand, Chile, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam (the P4 agreement) but will include more extensive provisions on intellectual property and other issues. The TPP will set rules that will likely be adopted initially by the 21 member economies in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The TPP is being negotiated by 9 members of APEC, and negotiators plan to finalize the “TPP concept” at the APEC Economic Leaders meeting in November 2011.

Like ACTA, the TPP Agreement is a plurilateral agreement that will be used to create new heightened global IP enforcement norms. Countries that are not parties to the negotiation will likely be asked to accede to the TPP as a condition of bilateral trade agreements with the U.S. and other TPP members, or evaluated against the TPP’s standards in the annual Special 301 process administered by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Source:https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp

Patients bask in the sun as they wait for doctors to attend to them.

By Frederick Womakuyu

Rose Chelangat, 24, had just delivered and had lost a lot of blood that she was bed-ridden. She could hardly stand up or speak. She urgently needed blood transfusion. Her newborn baby also needed some blood.

But Kaproron Health Centre IV — the only health facility in Kween district serving a population of about 205,000 people, did not have any. The newborn needed to be fixed on an oxygen concentrator  but the health facility did not have any.

Chelangat needed oxytocin to control bleeding but it was out of stock. Therefore, the health workers recommended that Chelangat and her baby be transferred to Kapchorwa Hospital, 40km from Kween.

But the health facility ambulance did not have fuel, so they asked her to pay for fuel. “But we did not have money, so we strapped her on a stretcher and rushed her to Kapchorwa Hospital,” explains Peter Chemisto, her husband.

However, halfway the journey, the mother died, leaving behind three children. The newborn baby was still alive but Chemisto did not have any more energy left to continue. Weeping, he decided to go home instead and by the time he reached, he had two dead bodies.

“I lost my child and the mother due to poor health services. A health facility is supposed to save lives but this one has become the leader in taking away lives,” says Chemisto.

Blood shortage

According to the in-charge, Boniface Muge, three newly born children die everyday because the facility has no blood transfusion services.

He adds that the facility also loses about two mothers every three months due to lack of blood.

In the maternity ward, there is nothing to write home about. While the three-bed labour suite glitters with new equipment including delivery kits and beds, there is no single doctor to operate on mothers who need a caesarean section yet the facility receives about 10 women per week that need one.

No wonder an average of 500 women in the district die of complications related to child birth annually, which is the second highest in Uganda, after Karamoja.

While the three enrolled midwives try as much as possible to help the mothers deliver properly, lack of an oxygen concentrator for the newborns to re-energise their breath and lack of oxytocin plugs the facility.

Like many rural facilities, this health centre also has no electricity yet a power line passes over their roof.

A huge generator that can power a full trading centre lies silent in the compound because they cannot afford fuel. Since they bought it, they have never used it due to lack of funds to get fuel to power it.

The health facility receives less than sh20m annually to carryout repairs and rehabilitation, fuel for vehicles and generator, administration and secretarial services. The facility uses charcoal to boil and sterilise delivery instruments. The fact is, Muge admits, most times the kits get contaminated, which affects the health of mothers.

While some mothers are able to deliver normally without any problems, they are told to buy everything including drugs, syringes, gloves and disinfectants like jik because the facility does not have them.

Jane Chebet, 34, a mother who had just delivered says she was asked to buy a syringe and the drugs at the nearest clinic which she suspects is owned by one of the health workers.

She was also asked to buy the gloves and Jik and all this cost her about sh30,000. At least she could afford it since her husband is a teacher. However, it took three days for her to finally get treatment.

“We buy everything here. The health workers tell us that they do not have what we need,” adds the mother five.

Death everyday

Despite having shiny new buildings, Kaproron health facility is known for having deaths almost every day. On the day New Vision visited the facility, all the drugs were out of stock and the few patients at the facility were advised to either buy some from the drug shops and clinics or go to Kapchorwa Hospital or simply go back home.

Alice Chelimo, 30, of Benet sub-county, had stayed for a week. Her son was suffering from severe malaria. The health facility did not have any antimalarial drugs to help him.

So, the health workers advised her to buy one from a clinic. She bought some at sh15,000 — the only money she has saved for close to a month and did not have anymore, yet by that time the boy had not yet recovered.

Severe staff shortages

Serving at a level of a hospital — this facility is supposed to have at least an X-ray or C-scan and several specialists. But the facility is serving at almost less than 10 percent health staffing professionals.

While they are supposed to have at least seven doctors, they have none. The only doctor at the district is the district health officer and due to his overwhelming duties, he rarely attends to the patients that need him.

The facility has no registered nurse except three enrolled nurses, yet these are supposed to be 25. The bottom line is that the health workers at Kaproron are some of the most overworked in the country. Some work for nearly 24 hours a day. No wonder many frustrated patients who cannot understand what goes on in there, are crying.

Boniface Muge explains that they want to recruit more staff but many people do not want to work there because the place is difficult to access with an impassable muddy road during the rainy season and poor pay.

According to Muge, while their counterparts in other districts like Bukwo are being paid a top up allowance of over 50% of what they earn, the health workers in Kaproron do not have any of this.

He, therefore, requests the ministry to pay them a hardship allowance to attract health workers there.

By Norman Katende

Staff and patients have abandoned over nine health centres in Amuru district due to the failure by the National Medical Stores (NMS) to supply them with drugs for over a year.

Among those health facilities abandoned is the sh120m Apaa Medical centre, which was constructed under the office of the Prime minister projects.

The centre, which has two houses, had a health assistant and three medical nurses to serve the population of Apaa and its neighbouring districts but after failing to get the drugs they entire team relocated to Pabo town.

The residents of the area have since then resorted to using traditional (herbal) medicines and self-medication.

“It was the nurses that first left after seeing that they had nothing to treat their patients with and also feared that the community might end up shifting blame on and attack them,” the LCIII chairman for Pabo county Christopher Ojera said.

“Most of them have resettled in Pabo to wait for the arrival of drugs. It is now over six months without getting drugs.”

He said that over eight health centres across the county have been forced to close.

“There are no drugs yet we have written letter to the district and National Medical stores with no results at all. We have also tried to request the area MPs and other politicians to try and meet these people to see that we at least get the basic drugs like for malaria and save the people from dying,” Ojera sounded disappointed.

He added that so many lives have been lost because of the long distance to other health units in the districts of Pabo, Gulu and Adjumani, also worsened by the poor state of the roads.

Source: New Vision

www.newvision.co.ug/section/53-10-Health.html

President Kagame examining drugs at Quality Chemicals in Kampala

By Conan Businge

President Paul Kagame has pledged that his Rwandan Governemnt will soon start buying some of its antiretroviral and anti-malarial drugs from Quality Chemicals in Uganda.

President Kagame made the pledge on his visit to Quality Chemicals factory in Kampala city’s suburb, Luzira, yesterday morning.

Quality Chemical’s chief executive officer, Emmanuel Katongole, in his brief to the press after the inspection of the factory on Friday, said President Kagame’s pledge will start with purchases for the public sector.

“We will also be selling to the private sector, on top of the public sector,” Katongole added. Katongole promised President Kagame drugs which meet the international standards.

“We shall offer you first-world quality of drugs, at third-world prices. Our prices are not the lowest, but are comparable to those recommended by World Health Organisation.” Quality Chemicals has already registered its products in Rwanda, and have a pre-qualification by WHO.

President Kagame also promised to work with Uganda, to locally process anti-malarial drugs’ raw materials- ‘Artemisia annua.’ Artemisia annua is the source of artemisinin, an antimalarial compound recommended by the World Health Organisation. Widely cultivated in China and Asia, Artemisia is a new crop for Africa and is largely limited to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Today, the harvested plants in Uganda are exported for processing in India, after which Quality Chemicals, like other pharmaceutical companies, buys it as a raw material to produce antimalarial drugs.

“With Rwanda opening up its market for our products, it will greatly resonate Quality Chemicals in the rest of Africa and spur more investments in the rest of Africa,” Katongole said.

Katongole added that Quality Chemicals is also considering investing in Rwanda.

Quality Chemical Industries is a state-of-the-art pharmaceutical manufacturing plant located in Kampala, Uganda.

It exists as an additional contract manufacturing site for CIPLA Ltd, which manufactures and sells combination therapy antiretroviral and antimalarial drugs that have proven to be most effective in combating HIV/AIDS and Malaria.

Source: New Vision

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/628633-rwanda-to-buy-uganda-s-drugs.html