Space For Consensus Widens In Pandemic Treaty Negotiations; Disagreements on Tech Transfer, Benefits-Sharing, and Tariff Wars Threaten A Final Deal

Newsletter Edition #122 [Treaty Talks]

Hi,

Optimism prevailed as countries gathered for a final round of negotiations on the Pandemic Agreement that commenced yesterday in Geneva. This has been refreshing given the general state of orchestrated chaos and malaise in global health that has dominated much of 2025.

Whether this optimism will continue through the week is entirely another matter.

In this update we bring you the state of play, and also look at the potential implications of the Trump-fired tariffs wars in these discussions.

Thank you for reading.

We will follow up with multiple updates as the week progresses.

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Until later!

Priti

Feel free to write to us: patnaik.reporting@gmail.com, Follow us on X: @filesgeneva

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Illustration Credit: Amy Clarke, Chembe Collaborative

I. INB 13 UPDATE

Space For Consensus Widens In Pandemic Treaty Negotiations; Disagreements on Tech Transfer, Benefits-Sharing, and Tariff Wars Threaten A Final Deal

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Geopolitics, financial pressures and a desperate wish for a win for multilateralism, are pushing countries to conclude the negotiations towards a new Pandemic Agreement. But whether they can, will become clear in a matter of days. Already, trade wars and deepening economic crises, are muddying the considerations for compromise.

Countries have come together in Geneva this week during April 7^th-11^th in what is meant to be a final scheduled meeting in a bid to reach consensus. To be sure, there are vast tracts of areas still to cross to reach the road to agreement. From agreeing on the terms of technology transfer in the context of pandemics, to aligning on the sharing of benefits in return for accessing pathogen information, crucial compromises remain to be made.

The meeting this week began with the intention to conclude the negotiations by Friday, 11^th April, so that countries would have the opportunity to consult internally, prior to the envisaged adoption of the pandemic agreement during the 78th World Health Assembly to be held next month. While there is overall interest in reaching consensus, few countries believe that everything would be finalized this week, additional time ahead of the Assembly will be required diplomatic sources said.

Lots of pending questions remain including on the way forward for the continuing work on the Pathogen Access and Benefits Sharing (PABS) mechanism that will be defined in a future workstream after the adoption of the main agreement.

In this story, we look at the evolving state of play across a few provisions. We are on the ground reporting on the negotiations and speaking with numerous negotiators and stakeholders involved in these discussions.

Image credit: Photo by cottonbro studio, Pexels