This month: young people in Australia, dementia, and Covid-19 in the first year. Read more...
As developing countries struggle to access COVID-19 vaccines and contend with catastrophic second and third waves of infection, the World Trade Organization (WTO) remains at an impasse in approving a waiver over intellectual property rights for COVID‑19 vaccines. While countries such as South Africa and India argue the waiver would have a profound impact on their ability to produce vaccines domestically, other countries such as Australia have questioned whether such a waiver would be effective in delivering greater numbers of vaccines. With substantial differences in the positions of the parties, it seems that despite discussions on the waiver continuing in Geneva, agreement may prove elusiv... Read more...
On 15 November 2020, ministers from 15 countries, including Australia, signed an agreement initiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a regional trading arrangement that has been described as ‘the world’s largest free trade agreement’. The other signatories comprise the ten ASEAN states—Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam—as well as China, Japan, Korea and New Zealand. Read more...
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