Four years have passed since the onset of COVID-19 and the global mishandling of its spread. Now, the same governments and international organizations that lied about the last pandemic are negotiating a new pandemic agreement and amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) at the World Health Organization (WHO).
The main culprit hasn’t changed. Although the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has never been held accountable for its complete refusal to adhere to previous IHR agreements or its ongoing obstruction of a thorough investigation into the virus’s origins, Beijing is now collaborating with the Biden administration on this new accord.
So naturally, the new agreement advances China’s interests. Successive drafts focus on everything, from sending taxpayer dollars overseas to weakening intellectual property rights and empowering the WHO over the national sovereignty of the United States. Yes, that’s the same WHO that failed to insert a team of global experts in the first few weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak in China (as required by IHR), instead capitulating to the CCP and allowing it to define the international response.
The latest version of the agreement even mandates that parties provide financial and technical assistance to developing countries. Of course, the United States has a long, robust history of providing such assistance—President George W. Bush’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is one good example—but such assistance has always been voluntary, not obligatory.
Unsurprisingly, China stands to benefit from these provisions intended to help “poor” countries. Despite having the second-largest economy in the world, the United Nations considers China to be a “developing country.” That’s right. The country that started the COVID-19 pandemic will not only suffer zero consequences for its actions but, should the United States sign this agreement, stand to benefit from mandatory transfers of funds from U.S. taxpayers.
China would also benefit from other provisions in the agreement that push governments to promote “sustainable and geographically diversified production” of pandemic-related products (like vaccines), invest in developing country capacity and access to proprietary research, use the “flexibilities” of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights to override patents, and encourage rights holders to forego or reduce royalties and consider time-bound waivers of intellectual property rights.
China, notorious for its theft of intellectual property, would be sure to exploit this privilege.
By Kevin Roberts and Robert Redfield
