Connect with us

News

Abolish import tariffs onmedical supplies, PPE – Coalition of global think tanks

A coalition of 31 global think tanks has called for immediate abolishment of import tariffs that are applied by many countries on medical supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE).

According to them, these tariffs are driving up prices and reducing availability.

They also called on global leaders to avoid export bans, which are exacerbating global shortages of essential medical goods by disrupting global manufacturing supply chains.

These were in a statement issued by one of the think tanks, IMANI Africa, on behalf of the coalition in Accra ahead of World Health Assembly, to be attended virtually by member states of the World Health Organisation on May 17, 2020, in Geneva.

Advertisement

According to the think tanks, customs red tape should be reviewed to keep goods crossing borders as quickly as possible and commit to open trade to help tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

The statement noted that innovation was crucial to finding a long-term solution to a newly identified disease like COVID-19, including the invention of new therapeutics and vaccines and their mass manufacture and rapid distribution.

“The think tanks call on governments to support needed innovation by facilitating the cross-border flow of epidemiological and clinical data related to COVID-19.  They should also avoid pre-emptively removing intellectual property rights from any new vaccines or treatments that emerge.

The world needs more companies to join the quest for new treatments and vaccines, not policies that send a strong signal to stay away. Intellectual property rights are vital to support coordinated mass manufacturing scale-up and global distribution,” it said.

Advertisement

Franklin Cudjoe, founding president of IMANI Africa, was quoted to have said that, “we are concerned that many countries are looking to the failed ideas of the past to address the crisis.

Barriers are being erected that are deepening shortages of medical supplies, undermining innovation and hampering efforts to beat the disease.

His view as stated by the statement was that the situation was compounded in relatively poor and poor countries, where patients are being failed by the lack of investment in domestic health care infrastructure.

“Now is not the time for countries to look inwards. The crisis will only be resolved, and economies will only recover, if countries are allowed to trade and collaborate freely with each other,” Mr Cudjoe concluded.

Advertisement

BY TIMES REPORTER

Continue Reading
Advertisement

News

Committee probing petitions against Chief Justice to begin hearings tomorrow

The Committee set up by President John Dramani Mahama to inquire into three petitions filec against the Chief Justice, Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo, will commence hearings tomorrow, Thursday May 15, 2025.

The five-member Committee chaired by Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang of the Supreme Court, was set up by the President in accordance with Article 146(6) of the 1992 constitution and in consultation with the Council of State, following a determination of a prima facie case against the Chief Justice.

The committee will sit three times a week and present their recommendations to the President upon completion of their work.

It would be recalled that President John Dramani Mahama recently suspended Chief Justice  following the establishment of a prima facie case in response to three separate petitions seeking her removal from office.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

News

38-year-old man gets life imprisonment for killing Assemblies of God pastor in 2018

After close to seven years of trial, a seven-member jury on Wednesday, May 14, returned a guilty verdict in the murder case involving the killing of the Senior Pastor of the Central Assemblies of God church at Tema in 2018.

The convict, Francis Nabegmado, a relative of the deceased, inflicted a fatal knife wound on Rev. Dr. David Nabegmado on December 30, 2018, after alleging that the senior pastor was a false preacher who engaged in idol worship and human sacrifices.

After an hour of summing up by the judge, Mary Maame Ekue Yanzuh, the jury retired briefly and returned with a unanimous guilty verdict.

Based on the unanimous verdict of the jurors who had previously studied the statements of the five witnesses called by the prosecution, and listened to the summing up process, the judge sentenced the 38-year-old to life imprisonment.

Advertisement

When he was offered an opportunity to comment on the verdict, the convict told the judge that he wanted to go home to meet his family.

“My Lady, I want to see my family, and I want to be taken to Yendi”.

When the judge told him she couldn’t make such an order for him to go and see his family in Yendi, the convict forcefully said, “I insist”.

Francis, who will now spend the rest of his life at the Nsawam medium security prison, had told the court throughout the trial that the decision to attack his uncle, Rev. Nebegmado, was driven by insanity, but that did not save him from receiving a life sentence.

Advertisement

Speaking briefly after the sentencing, Senior Pastor of the Assemblies of God church at Tema Community 4, Rev. Emmanuel Kwesi Ofori, said the church has been waiting for this closure for the past seven years and will soon issue an official statement.

Source: Myjoyonline.com

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending