Wall Street Journal - January 27, 2006
Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

The Seattle-based family foundation of Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates released its plan this morning in Davos, Switzerland. The Gates funding helps kick off a round of new funding needed to support a new plan, also released at the World Economic Forum, called the Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015.

The new 10-year plan by the Stop TB Partnership, a multinational group of governments, NGOs and individuals based at the World Health Organization in Geneva, aims to save 14 million lives and treat 50 million patients by 2015. TB, an infectious lung disease, is caused by a bacillus spread through the air mainly by coughing.

Each year, more than eight million people world-wide are diagnosed with new active cases of TB, and two million people die from the disease. About 400,000 new cases a year are classed as multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, requiring long and costly treatment. TB also infects a third of the world's 40 million people with HIV. HIV can activate latent TB infection, and TB in turn hastens progression of HIV to AIDS in a lethal synergy.

While TB is a humanitarian disaster, it also hurts businesses. A recent survey of 11,000 businesses by the Global Health Initiative of the World Economic Forum found about a third of them expect TB to have an impact on their business in the next five years.

The thrust of the Gates Foundation's new monies is to fund research and development of new TB technologies, said Helene Gayle, director of the foundation's HIV, TB and Reproductive Health Program.

"To defeat this global killer, we're going to need new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics," Dr. Gayle said, to replace staple tools like century-old diagnostic tests, a 1900-era vaccine, and 40-year-old drug regimens. STOP TB hopes to introduce a new TB drug in 2010, and a new vaccine by 2015.

But Gates funds will supply less than 2% of the estimated $56 billion needed to fund the STOP TB Partnership 10 year plan. That pricetag is more than double the current projected funding stream of $25 billion over that period.

U.K. Finance Minister Gordon Brown has put TB on the agenda of the G8 nations, and attention now is expected to focus on efforts to enlist other countries and donor groups to fill the $31 billion gap.

Dr. Gayle said, "I'm optimistic people will see this as a good investment."

No Progress on Global Trade Talks

Global trade talks appeared deadlocked Friday, as ministers skirted the main issue of cutting tariffs and subsidies and focused instead on setting timetables for future meetings.

Six trade ministers joined World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy for a 90-minute gathering on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, and the discussions centered mainly on the timing of future meetings instead of the issues that have stalled all progress in the Doha round of talks.

"So far what has been offered is not acceptable," said Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim. "What is on the table is insufficient to unleash the virtuous circle that we need."

Only three months remain before a self-imposed deadline for setting precise formulas for cutting trade barriers, and major players at the 149-member WTO appear as far apart as ever on the tough subject of farm trade, as well as market access for industrial goods and liberalizing service industries.

Little seems to have changed since before December's ministerial meeting in Hong Kong, where members failed to agree on those formulas and only settled on a new, April 30 deadline for reaching that point. That leaves little time before they are confronted with the final, year-end deadline for concluding the Doha negotiations.

The key point of contention is still European farm markets. The European Union, under pressure from France and other members, has refused to concede to U.S. and Brazilian demands for lower import tariffs and domestic subsidies.

EU trade chief Peter Mandelson said he met separately with Mr. Amorim, among others, but that the talks were fruitless.

"I've asked him if there will be an offer. It's not a new offer were asking for, it's a first offer and none was tabled this morning," Mr. Mandelson said. When asked if WTO members could agree before the end-April deadline, Mr. Mandelson responded: "We'll try."

Trade ministers from Australia, Brazil, the EU, India, Japan and the U.S. will likely meet again in mid-March. A timetable for more negotiations should be finished in Davos Saturday, when a larger group of ministers from about 25 WTO members will meet.

"Unfortunately I think we need to set up more specific dates even before March," said U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman. "We didn't make any decisions in terms of the substance of the negotiating areas." India's Commerce Minister Kamal Nath stressed that time was running short.

Write to Marilyn Chase at marilyn.chase@wsj.com

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