Vaccine Development, the China Dilemma, and International Regulatory Challenges
NYU Journal of International Law and Politics, Vol. 55, pp. 739-82, 2023
Texas A&M University School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 22-60
45 Pages Posted: 30 Nov 2022 Last revised: 13 Nov 2023
Date Written: November 30, 2022
Abstract
Since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March 2020, countries, intergovernmental bodies, nongovernmental organizations and individual experts have called for the development of new global frameworks and adjustments to international regulatory standards. As the pandemic has slowly evolved into an endemic—at least in the Global North—demands for emergency relief measures have given way to debates on the development of new international regulatory standards to provide a more effective response during the inter-pandemic period and in the post-COVID-19 era.
One challenging and inevitable debate concerns the role played by China in the development of international regulatory standards at the intersection of intellectual property, international trade and public health. Among the important issues are whether China will support the development of new standards, whether its participation will create complications, how and how fast its role will evolve in the near future and how other countries should engage with China in the international regulatory system. Improving global pandemic preparedness in this system is particularly important considering that many medical and public health experts have already predicted that another global pandemic will emerge in the next decade or two.
Written for the 28th Annual Herbert Rubin and Justice Rose Luttan Rubin International Law Symposium, this article begins by briefly discussing the role China has played in the global health arena during the COVID-19 pandemic. It then highlights the difficulty in determining how best to engage with the country in the development of new international regulatory standards. The article shows that the preferred method of engagement will likely depend on one's perspective on China's potential contributions and hindrances: a perspective that focuses on global competition—in the economic, trade and technological arenas—is likely to differ significantly from one emphasizing global health. This article concludes by providing four key takeaways concerning the challenges and complications that China has posed, or will pose, to policymakers in the development of new international regulatory standards.
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