For over a year now, the COVID-19 pandemic has strained governments, economies and public health to within breaking point. In South America alone, there have been over 25 million recorded cases of COVID-19 and 679,376 deaths, with an outbreak in Brazil that is the third largest in the world. Amid this great human and economic […]
By Ember Larregui On Friday, April 9th, the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center, in partnership with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) hosted a webinar discussion on the role of multilateralism in combating climate change with climate finance, just recoveries and a Global Green New Deal, as part of the […]
By Steffen Murau, Fabian Pape and Tobias Pforr The view that the international monetary system is hierarchical has become increasingly common in International Political Economy (IPE) scholarship. Yet the nature, shape, and origin of this hierarchy often remain vague, as assessments vary considerably based on the analytical starting point. For example, is it a hierarchy […]
On the eve of the COVID-19 crisis, the global financial safety net (GFSN) boasted more liquidity resources than at any other point in history. As the global economy entered into free fall due to the economic effects of the pandemic and efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19, both casual observers and experts were convinced […]
By Rachel Thrasher The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the existing challenges of equitable access to affordable medicines into sharp relief. With almost 3 million deaths globally, every country in the world is dealing with an unprecedented disease burden on the health care system, the economic impacts of mandated public and private sector shut-downs and increasingly […]
The world was unprepared for COVID-19, despite other recent coronavirus outbreaks and despite multiple warnings from the World Health Organization (WHO) and others. Although there was an initial sharing of research among scientists and an unleashing of significant public, charitable and private funding to develop, test and expand manufacturing capacity of new COVID-19-related medicines, vaccines […]
Since ascending to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, China has focused extensively on increasing protection for intellectual property rights (IPRs). Additionally, in 2019, China signed a Phase One trade agreement with the United States to accelerate that process even more. These heightened intellectual property rules are beyond what is required by the WTO’s […]
On April 22nd, 2021, members of the Boston University Global Development Policy Center’s Working Group on Trade and Access to Medicines called upon United States Trade Representative, Katherine Tai and the European Union Trade Commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis with an urgent request to extend the transition period for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) under Article 66.1 of […]
All of the US Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) signed in the past 20 years have required trading partners to enact stronger intellectual property (IP) laws than those stipulated by the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), provisions commonly referred to as “TRIPS-Plus.” This includes trade agreements made […]
By Michael Palmedo All United States Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) signed in the past 20 years have required trading partners to enact intellectual property (IP) laws that are stronger than those required by the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). In pharmaceutical markets, these “TRIPS-Plus” rules enhance the […]