Hello, Brussels. The European Parliament has never opposed public statements and will vote in the European Parliament today. Resolution Indicates that the China-EU Investment Agreement (CAI) will remain frozen until China stops Sanctions Some members of the European Parliament of the European Union.Same as Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis (Valdis Dombrovskis) Similar comments Earlier this month, the statement more or less reflected everyone’s ideas anyway, and did not have any legal power, but it was useful to publish it publicly. The deadlock is that China will not lift sanctions on EU targets unless the EU takes the same action on its Chinese equivalent targets, and this will not happen. Before that, CAI would spend a lot of time in the refrigerator drawer at minus 18°C, which is minus 18°C ??(for American readers, this is zero Fahrenheit).

Today’s main topic looks ahead to the health summit to be held in Rome tomorrow. There is no doubt that vaccine and patent issues will be subject to non-partisan and technocratic scrutiny, and will not involve any prominent issues. Chartered waters Look at the sharp decline of Bitcoin-we don’t think it will soon become the reserve currency of anyone’s choice.

Continue WTO Covid discussions

Perform a series of rotations and reverse rotations before tomorrow Global Health Summit It reminds us of the G8 and G20 meetings of the past few decades. Journalists will spend a few days analyzing press releases. These press releases involve aid to Africa, debt relief to Iraq, fiscal stimulus policies during the global financial crisis, and your true innovation and shameless re-announcement. The reason for the distinction between false statement and straightforward falsehood.

Yesterday is EU’s turn Try to grasp the narrative content as a counter-suggestion to the story U.S. support The World Trade Organization’s Covid-19 vaccine travel exemption. By the time the summit was held, and even when you read this article, South Africa and India, which started the entire dialogue in October, had committed themselves to improving their plans.

In our case, EU initiative Firmly in the “re-announce” box. Its proposed clause on exempting patents essentially restates the flexibility already available under the Trips agreement, including the ability to export compulsory licenses to countries that do not have its own manufacturing capabilities, and in emergency situations without first having to negotiate with patents. The ability to freely issue licenses. -Holder. At least they are honest about it: an EU official told reporters yesterday that this is more a “reaffirmation” of existing rights than a new proposal. Brussels stated that it was ready to negotiate a patent exemption, but did not think it would be very helpful.

Since we are in the refurbishment business, we will briefly discuss the skeptical views with the EU.The problem is not that there is no alternative to patents-Bolivia is test Compulsory licensing agreements with Canada-but they are slow, troublesome and resisted by pharmaceutical companies and their governments. As we said before, if the U.S. signals about giving up patents have any effect, it may increase the pressure on pharmaceutical companies to carry out more technology transfers and share their own intellectual property rights. This move by the EU to join may also help send a signal to European pharmaceutical companies.

But this is our focus today, lest we are accused of falling into chaos. Many of the EU’s arguments are correct. Vaccine patents are not the main issue. Of course, in the short term, technology transfer and export are more important. The government needs to keep the supply chain open and functioning. As far as the current WTO is concerned, promoting the open trade of medical products is as important as (perhaps more important) as changing patent rules.

However, it is difficult for the media and the public to focus on such distracted issues. You might even feel a little sorry for Brussels, because it tries to make a simple and impressive announcement in a complex and subtle situation. The EU is not an evil means of corporate evil, or at least to some extent, it is a respected company. The EU has always held a fairly consistent view of advanced economies. This is also in line with “Third wayThe remarks made by WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala happened to be meeting with the Council of Europe and Parliament in Brussels today.

Therefore, considering that it takes several months to reach any patent exemption, how should we engage in dialogue? The best thing is that the United States will quickly draft an exemption proposal together with South Africa-India and start the WTO negotiation machine in Geneva, submit both proposals, and then hold talks if the government turns to seek solutions. . Now there is a question of increasing production.It won’t be that sexy-it involves dull but vital things, such as Kovacs Distribution plan, regulatory authorization, production schedule, procurement contract and cold chain. However, this is what needs to be done.

The contribution of tomorrow’s summit is unclear. The most obvious thing that follows may be a series of announcements about funding Covax and donating excess vaccines to developing countries, which may or may not involve double counting. The last message we heard, it is not even clear whether the final statement will even discuss patent exemptions. Summits are usually only useful for forcing action by elevating a relatively simple issue to a higher political level, and this does not actually happen here. The best thing about this gathering was to announce a turning point to get rid of patent exemptions and turn to the complex but more fruitful issue of increasing production. Will it? Maybe not tomorrow, but we are optimistic about the “trade secrets” people, and we believe it will happen at some point.

Chartered waters

We have been very clear We believe that there is little chance that Bitcoin will be widely used in world trade. One of the reasons is its value (when measured by the currency people use) Practical use) Very unstable. With this in mind, take a look at what has happened to Bitcoin recently:

It is not clear what is driving the sell-off.it’s been Linked Once expressed to China that it wanted to curb the use of cryptocurrency, no one was surprised by the CCP’s dissatisfaction with a product aimed at challenging the state’s currency monopoly. In any case, as Naeem Aslam of the online trading platform AvaTrade said: “No company wants their inventory accounts to plummet by nearly 40% within a day.”

Eventually, something will replace the U.S. dollar as the dominant reserve currency. But this is not this. Claire Jones

Trade ties

Some exciting news. Facts have proved that vaccine distribution has not only the power of division, but also the power of unity.This Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation The group faces serious conflicts during the Trump administration and is trying Build yourself As a force Keep the trade in the jabAnd other Covid treatments.European Union too making plans Open to Vaccinated tourists .

Do the tension around Northern Ireland Agreement Does Joe Biden have a chance? Philip Stephens Think so, Calling on the president of the United States to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, Bill Clinton, and to foster a diplomatic solution.

Nikkei report (U.S. dollars, subscription required), this is a batch of shirts from a Japanese clothing retailer, suspected to be confiscated by Japanese customs officers and then confiscated by US customs. Xinjiang The Production and Construction Corps was subjected to forced labor.

Although new EU Artificial Intelligence Guidelines At present, this will have a limited impact on transatlantic trade. The German Marshall Foundation in the United States think It may increase in the future. Alan Beattie and Claire Jones

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