PETALING JAYA: A clear-cut framework must be established first before any supertax is imposed on sectors that have benefited from the Covid-19 pandemi.
Yves here. I wish I could be enthusiastic about Biden saying he would support a waiver of Big Pharma Covid vaccine patents. After all, we’ve been pumping for this measure for some time, albeit mainly through the posts of Jomo Kwame Sundaram, who has written that the much of the Global South would not get vaccines until 2023 on the current schedule, and even then, in many cases, at higher prices than the Global North.
However, if you look at various press stories on this plan, you’ll see two things. One is the abject falsehood that these supposedly backwards countries would have trouble making the vaccines, especially the novel (in terms of large scale use in humans) mRNA vaccines. Microbiology prof KLG debunked that via e-mail:
Neoliberal Finance Poor Countries Recovery Undermined The New Nation
Inter Press Service:
After being undermined by decades of financial liberalisation, developing countries now are not only victims of vaccine imperialism, but also cannot count on much financial support as their COVID-19 recessions drag on due to global vaccine apartheid.
Developing countries have long been pressured to liberalise finance by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The international financial institutions claimed this would bring net capital inflows. This was supposed to reduce foreign exchange constraints to accelerating growth, creating a rosy scenario, indeed .
Globalisation s claim naively expects more birds to fly into, rather than out of an open birdcage . Instead, financial globalisation meant net capital flows from capital-poor developing countries to capital-rich developed countries, i.e., dubbed the Lucas paradox . A decade later, flows uphill ha
The unsung Mandela of press freedom from goodreads
HAVE you ever heard of a workers’ strike or similar labour action for press freedom? And how long do you think it lasted? A day? A week? A month? And where and when do you think this happened?
Workers strike for press freedom
Six decades ago, in 1961, Said Zahari, the editor of the Malay language daily,
Utusan Melayu, led a strike of journalists and other employees.
The protracted strike, in both Malaysia and Singapore today, was for press freedom rather than employee welfare.
Against all odds, the strike lasted over a hundred days! It also marked the end of the ‘honeymoon’ for the post-colonial government after independence.
04 May 2021 / 14:53 H. Bernama
KUALA LUMPUR: The government should consider implementing a windfall tax on industries that benefit greatly from the Covid-19 crisis, according to Khazanah Research Institute senior advisor Professor Dr Jomo Kwame Sundaram (pix).
“This is precisely the time when you must reform taxes, as you have it (windfall tax) all the time amid extraordinarily high petroleum prices or palm oil prices.
“Why not for other types of industries?” the prominent economist said at a panel discussion held in conjunction with the World Bank Group’s webinar titled “Aiming High: Promoting Inclusion and Financing Shared Prosperity” today.
Asked when is the right time to re-introduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Jomo opined that now is the best time to introduce taxes that do not generate revenue immediately, as many were badly impacted by the pandemic.