World Trade Organisation

November 9, 2010: The Australian government recently announced new spending of A$500 million over three years to ensure provide COVID-19 vaccines and immunisation technical support to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Kiribati in the Pacific, and Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam in south-east Asia.

November 2, 2020: A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) – Whoever Finds the Vaccine Must Share It - shows the grave danger of failure to provide COVID-19 vaccines universally and fairly, as the global community witnesses a third wave of the pandemic in the northern winter.

MEDIA RELEASE                                                                                               

October 26, 2020

“It is disappointing that Australia reportedly opposed proposals from India and South Africa to make COVID-19 treatments and vaccines more affordable and available to low-income countries at the World Trade Organisation Council on the Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement on October 16,” AFTINET Convener Dr Patricia Ranald said today.

October 20, 2020: South Africa and India called on the World Trade Organisation on October 2, 2020, to waive intellectual property rules that could impeded access to treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 pandemic programs.

October 7, 2020: The Nation magazine has started the investigation of investments that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation may have in the pharmaceutical companies wanting to manufacture possible COVID-19 vaccines. The Gates Foundation is the key funder of Gavi The Vaccine Alliance and CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, as well as being a co-leader in the World Health Organisation’s COVAX Facility and Advanced Market Commitment funds.

October 6, 2020: India and South Africa have asked the World Trade Organisation on October 2, 2020, to waive some provisions in its TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement to make vaccines and treatment more accessible to low-income countries, reported Pharmalot.

September 28, 2020: Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison re-announced Australia’s A$80 million contribution to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) to the UN General Assembly on September 26.

September 8, 2020: A study published by Friends of the Earth Australia in May exposed a serious level of pesticide residues on foods imported into Australia in the period 2017-19. The data came from Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service monthly Failing Food Reports.

August 27, 2020: Initial commitments by university-based vaccine developers and the World Health Organisation to provide COVID-19 vaccines to all manufacturers without paying high monopoly prices have been overwhelmed by the pharmaceutical industry’s absolute commitment to intellectual property rights, according to a report in Fortune Magazine.

August 14, 2020: A short but growing list of countries are now signing pre-order contracts with pharmaceutical manufacturers for possible COVID-19 vaccines, which could leave behind most of the world’s population in 2021.