The World Trade Organization decided to indefinitely postpone its 12th Ministerial Conference, originally scheduled for this week (30 November to 3 December), due to travel constraints for many delegations coming from countries that had already imposed travel bans and other restrictions due to the new Omicron variant. The 12th Ministerial was slated to take up a range of agenda items, but what was supposed to be most politically sensitive is the ongoing impasse on India and South Africa's proposal (currently supported by over 100 countries) for a TRIPS waiver for COVID vaccines and other related medical goods, therapeutics, and equipment to respond to the pandemic. United States President Biden has already openly supported the TRIPS waiver since May 2021, but to date the European Union remains opposed to the proposal. Switzerland recently announced it is open to compromise, but the indefinitely postponed 12th WTO Ministerial enables more time for the impasse on the TRIPS waiver to continue. As of this writing, the World Health Organization reports over 259…
Economic Development
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Just Transitions in Climate Change Actions: Are States Respecting, Promoting, and Considering Human Rights Obligations in Setting and Implementing NDCs?
Recent exchanges hosted on EJIL:Talk! on climate action and how to go about "mainstreaming" it (see here and here) provide a microcosmic view of the ongoing challenges of State policies to transition and transform economies to reach treaty commitments under the Paris Agreement, including States' commitments as indicated in their publicly registered nationally determined contributions. International…
Why The Netherlands should ratify CETA
International law has been front-page news in The Netherlands for the past weeks as the Dutch Parliament is debating whether or not to ratify the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada (CETA). The so-called Second Chamber (Chamber of Representatives) approved such ratification in February 2020 and the issue will be put to a…
The Revived Debate over Development and Human Rights: Economic Self-Determination, Sovereignty, and Non-Discrimination in State Policies
2017 closed, and 2018 began, with triumphant pronouncements of economic recovery in the United States (e.g. the US economy growing again at its fastest pace at 3.2% GDP growth rate, lowest unemployment rate at 4.1%) and the European Union (e.g. registering its highest GDP growth rate in ten years at 2.2%) - leading the International…
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