June 11, 2020: The World Trade Organisation appellate body decision against several countries that challenged Australia’s plain packaging law is the final victory in a ten-year battle against tobacco companies’ use of trade and investment law against public health.
June 8, 2020 The AFTINET submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Trea
June 8, 2020: Eight Australian trade union and civil society organisations including AFTINET called on the Australian government on June 4, 2020, to support the world’s poorest countries to deal with the health, economic, and social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
June 5, 2020: Thirty-seven countries supported the formal launch on May 29, 2020, of the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), an initiative to increase access to knowledge needed to produce vaccines, tests, treatments and other health technologies to fight COVID-19. The Pool was first proposed in March by President Carlos Alvarado of Costa Rica.
June 3, 2020: In an astonishing backdown, the remaining 15 states negotiating for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership reportedly told the Indian government that it could defer any stronger market access commitments, and was welcome to sign the draft agreement in November 2020.
June 1, 2020: During April and May the institutional arrangements for global cooperation to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic – the UN Security Council, the World Health Organisation, the G7 and G20 – failed to provide leadership, largely due to the US Trump Administration.
May 27, 2020: The Public Services International report, Digital Trade Rules and Big Tech: surrendering public good to private power, by Professor Jane Kelsey, University of Auckland, analyses the e-commerce chapter of the Comprehensive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership and some specific case studies, with alarming conclusions and a call for action.
May 21, 2020: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India’s decision to quit the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership grouping, which includes the 10 ASEAN nations, in November 2019, and a new deadline for India to consider a new offer on market access expired on May 15, 2020.
May 20, 2020: The World Health Assembly unanimously adopted the draft resolution on COVID-19 which endorsed the central role of the World Health Organisation in the global response to the pandemic, called for the greatest cooperation between member states in providing resources and sharing knowledge about treatments and vaccines for the new coronavirus, and established two investigations – one into the origins of the coronavirus and how it was transmitted to humans, and one into the response to the pandemi