The simplest way to fight global warming and injustice at the same time would be for the world’s richest countries to end the vicious debt cycle that forces poor countries to exploit natural resources.

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The ITUC has made a submission to the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) outlining the decline of respect for civil and political liberties and trade union rights in Hong Kong, as the 35th anniversary of the territory’s handover is marked on 1 July.

Read ITUC’s blog

After decades of rejecting international tax cooperation under multilateral auspices, rich countries have finally agreed. But, by insisting on their own terms, progressive corporate income tax remains distant.

Tax avoidance and evasion by transnational corporations (TNCs) are facilitated by ‘tax havens’ – jurisdictions with very low ‘effective’ taxation rates. Intense competition among developing countries to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) makes things worse.

Developing countries need tax revenue most, but they will lose more, as a share of GDP, than wealthy countries. But a global minimum corporate (income) tax rate (GMCTR) can become a “game changer” undermining tax havens.

Read the article by Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Despite the well-known problems with using gross domestic product as an indicator of human development, policy-makers around the world still seem obsessed with it. Governments seek to promote GDP growth through all possible means, often regardless of the wider consequences for the planet and the distribution of rewards. The current focus on quarterly growth reflects a particularly unhealthy short-term perspective. And yet the International Monetary Fund and other multilateral organisations refer to GDP in all assessments of economic performance and make it the sole focus of their forecasts.

But the concept of GDP is deeply flawed. Aggregate or per capita figures are obviously blind to the distribution of income, and GDP is increasingly unable to measure quality of life or the sustainability of any particular system of production, distribution and consumption. Moreover, because GDP in most countries captures only market transactions, it excludes a significant amount of goods and services produced for personal or household consumption. By making market pricing the chief determinant of value, irrespective of any activity’s social value, GDP massively undervalues what many now recognise (especially in light of the pandemic) as essential services relating to the care economy.

Read the article by Jayathi Ghosh

It took almost two full years for the World Trade Organization to adopt a decision on its role in the Covid-19 pandemic. Once it finally did, it was not the decision the world needed: the 12th Ministerial Conference of the WTO did not result in a TRIPS waiver as asked by South Africa, India, and more than 100 developing countries.

Instead, it led to a bleak decision based on the wishes of the Global North and pharmaceutical companies. The document does nothing to lift intellectual property privileges from Covid-19 medical products, and limits itself to alleviate some of the barriers to export of vaccines which exist in the original TRIPS agreement. We bring more on the outcomes of the Ministerial Conference through a conversation with trade unionist George Poe Williams and legal advisor K.M. Gopakumar.

Read more in People’s Health Dispatch

The Doha Declaration’s twentieth anniversary in November 2021 has taken place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The experience of the past two years has demonstrated that the very factors that necessitated the Declaration—the problems of inequitable access to medicines and other health technologies for the world’s poor—continue to plague us.
 
Has the promise of the Doha Declaration been betrayed? In this contribution, we critically engage with this question, focusing our appraisal on whether the Doha Declaration has been successful in fulfilling its commitments to: (a) advancing access to health; (b) equity and fairness in the relations between WTO Members States; and (c) recognising perspectives from the developing world in formulating IP policy. Ultimately, we conclude that the promise of the Doha Declaration has failed to materialise.

Read the paper of South Center

Statistics on poverty and i equality: they are far from easy! We already know it from the Wortld Bank, now it seems Oxfam can be as careless as others …

Read about it: Oxfam serves up a lot of dodgy statistics – by Noah Smith (substack.com)

Domestic workers make an important contribution to society, providing vital care for families and households, but they remain undervalued. And domestic workers are … women.

Read ILO’s press brief

The Global Initiative on ESCR published its first Yearbook on all the initiatives of the UN Commission

Read the Report

This is now also a fundamental principle of the ILO, for all its member States. The landmark decision means that all ILO Member States commit to respect and promote the fundamental right to a safe and healthy working environment, whether or not they have ratified the relevant Conventions.

Read all about it