April 21, 2021: The US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has succeeded in imposing indemnity clauses in its vaccine contract with South Africa, but on exposure was forced to drop demands for sovereign assets to be sold to pay for any claims for compensation for adverse effects.

South Africa has a variant of the novel coronavirus which is resistant to the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine but still vulnerable to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

April 20, 2021: The Australian Fair Trade & Investment Network lodged its submission on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership with the Australian parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Treaties on April 16, 2021.

The RCEP includes Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, South Korea and the 10 ASEAN countries.

April 19, 2021: Two hundred and fifty global, regional and national civil society organisations delivered the strongest statement yet in support of the waiver of intellectual property rights during the COVID-19 pandemic to World Trade Organisation Director General Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on 13 April.

April 16, 2021: The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) are calling on all healthcare and public health professionals and academics to support the removal of legal and technical barriers to COVID-19 medical tools.

April 14, 2021: The Australian Council of Trade Unions condemned the Federal Government at a parliamentary inquiry hearing into Myanmar on April 13, 2021, for pressing ahead with ratifying the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade agreement which includes trade with Myanmar.

April 13, 2021: Dr Deborah Gleeson explains in a new article in The Conversation why the one plan for a fair global vaccine distribution is in trouble, and what can be done to recover it.

April 8, 2021: Pakistan’s Board of Investment has prepared a strategy to withdraw from all inhibiting clauses in the 53 Bilateral Investment Treaties the country has with 48 countries, including Australia.

The major concerns are provisions related to investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). These shrink the policy space for the government to adopt measures in the public interest.

April 7, 2021: A new analysis of the COVAX initiative to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries uncovers major ethical and governance problems as well as health risks for the target countries. COVAX involves the World Health Organisation, governments, philanthropic initiatives like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and pharmaceutical companies in the purchase of vaccines from the companies to make them available to low-income countries.

April 6, 2021: US-based global law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP is advising US investors to prepare Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) claims against Mexico over its Power Industry Law and its proposed Hydrocarbons Reform Bill which enable Mexico to take action against climate change.

March 31, 2021: The Biden Administration has come under pressure from almost 100 Congressional Democrats to support the suspension of World Trade Organisation rules on intellectual property during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 23 world leaders are now proposing a new international treaty for pandemic preparedness and response.