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| Bush and Chirac row over Africa drugs programme |
| 2006-07-09 |
| G8 leaders have become embroiled in a dispute over competing plans for funding cheap drugs to the Third World. Disagreements over how the programme is to be financed have dashed hopes that agreement would be reached at their summit next weekend in St Petersburg. Jacques Chirac, President of France, has threatened to veto an Italian plan unless President Bush backs his scheme for a special aircraft tax whose proceeds would fund a vaccine scheme in Africa. The spat has now embroiled all G8 leaders with the exception of Vladimir Putin, President of Russia and host of the summit. He wants the leaders to focus on energy supplies and sign long-term gas contracts with Russia. During pre-summit talks, France proposed a straight swap: it would endorse the Italian Advance Market Commitments (AMC) scheme if the Americans agreed to impose an airline tax. When no deal was reached, President Chirac threatened to veto the AMC scheme. A source close to the talks said that AMC had been very close to agreement. “It is now in substantial danger of flopping, even though there is an extraordinary level of support among some key stakeholders.” The AMC scheme, backed by the US, would guarantee subsidies of between $800m and $6bn to pharmaceutical companies for developing cheap vaccines, particularly for pneumonia and meningitis, which kill millions in the Third World. Few African countries can afford to buy these kinds of vaccines. Gordon Brown, the UK Chancellor, had already failed to win US or German approval for his own scheme, called the International Finance Facility. Under Brown’s plan, G8 governments would raise loans for African countries which would not show up on their national accounts. Washington has come out strongly opposed to Brown’s idea, on the basis that the Federal government makes aid payments from current spending. Instead, the US has thrown its full backing to the AMC scheme set up by Giulio Tremonti, Brown’s Italian counterpart. President Chirac does not object in principle to the AMC plan, but his pet project is an airline tax . He has German approval for this tax, but an airline tax is vigorously opposed by Japan and the US. Brown has promised to contribute a section of what is already raised by UK airport taxes but has refused to levy charges. It is now seems likely that all three rival schemes will be set up outside the G8, dashing hopes raised at the Gleneagles summit. France has already imposed a E1 ($1.28, 69p) charge on economy class seats and E10 on business class flights for its fund to fight Aids in Africa, and said it has 13 countries willing to sign up. Brown is to raise $4bn for his debt-for-Africa vaccines scheme along with France, Italy, Spain and Sweden. Sources in the Italian government said that, like Brown, they may be forced to launch their own scheme outside the G8 if France fails to agree to the AMC plan. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #2 I sat next to a German fellow (USCIT) for past 25 years, D.C. World Bank employee and Clintonite at the Frankfort Airport on Saturday waiting on a flight to the ME. We had a lively, 1.5 hour discussion about POTUS, immigration, and Euro opinion. He had the unhappy task of educating these third world cess pool governments on the technical aspects of WB loan "funding" application and distribution. I had no idea they actually had to be taught the benefits of vaccines, clean water and modern public sanitation, but such is the case. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-07-09 21:36 |
| #1 Chirac is more than willing to kill millions of Africans to protect his precious new taxes. If anyone has ever worshipped at the idol of Mammon, it is Chirac. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-07-09 13:06 |