Trade : Co-sponsors press for expeditious outcome on TRIPS waiver (PRIV)
(D. Ravi Kanth, Geneva)
As the small-group meetings on specific aspects of the TRIPS waiver proposal are continuing at the WTO, the co-sponsors of the temporary TRIPS waiver proposal on 30 June pressed for reaching an expeditious outcome for ramping-up the production of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines across countries in the face of the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic that has cost close to four million lives so far with 182 million registered cases of COVID-19 globally, said people familiar with the discussions.

Trade : New draft fisheries text remains inimical to interests of Global South (PRIV)
(D. Ravi Kanth, Geneva)
The chair of the Doha Rules negotiations, Ambassador Santiago Wills from Colombia, on 30 June issued a revised draft text on fisheries subsidies with "modest" changes under his own responsibility as the basis for negotiations at the upcoming ministerial meeting on 15 July, in what the WTO Director-General reckons that positions are "far apart" but "they are close," said people who participated in the meeting.

Rights : Acceleration rights plan for gender equality mooted at forum (PRIV)
(IPS, New York)
As the global gathering for gender equality, the Generation Equality Forum, kicks off in Paris on June 30, 2020, IPS conducted an exclusive interview with Katja Iversen.