By Brahm G10

In the most recent session of open parliamentary debate, Ukraine submitted a resolution on the trafficking of counterfeit substances. Goals of this include to increase international governmental bodies involvement in prevention, promote education about the topic and multinational cooperation on the issue. 

The session began with the delegation of Ukraine giving their opening statements, highlighting the feelings of the international community on the matter, claiming that 140 countries feel as though it is a large concern. Their statement then continued to show how Ukraine is disproportionately affected by this trade due to their ongoing conflict, this allowed for a segway into the issue of rising costs of pharmaceuticals, stating the need for lowered prices. The main issues to be found by this were from India and Germany. 

The Indian delegation found concern with how the program would be implemented in rural areas where infrastructure required to effectively prevent trafficking is currently not in place. The German delegation found an issue with how Ukraine was choosing to allocate its diplomatic efforts towards resolution of this issue instead of their ongoing conflict. However, after this, co-submitters of the resolution stated their reasons for supporting the resolution. 

The issues of the counterfeit drug trade in Southeast Asia were displayed by the Cambodian delegation, using the fact that 2.6 million US dollars are spent annually on counterfeit drugs in the region. The UK put its support behind the resolution as after Brexit it found it much harder to effectively regulate imports to the country after removing itself from the EU customs enforcement program, this resolution would provide opportunities for better collaboration to combat trafficking. 

While the resolution seemed to find support from many groups it was not without its critics. Notably the delegation of the United States brought the potential issue of discouragement of establishment of pharmaceutical companies in countries that signed the resolution. The issue of potential increases in prices due to the restrictions on free trade that would come into effect, leading to lower economic areas to be priced out.

 The resolution was able to pass with a slight majority. The hope is that illegal trade will be limited and counterfeiting to be phased out of the world economy.