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Cato Daily Dispatch for September 5, 2003

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U.S. Said to Shift Approach in Talks with North Korea
D.C. Vouchers Clear Senate Panel
Access to Generic Drugs Not a Cure-all for AIDS-stricken Africa

U.S. Said to Shift Approach in Talks with North Korea

The New York Times reports that "President Bush, in a significant shift in his approach to North Korea, authorized American negotiators to say last week that he is prepared to take a range of steps to aid the starving nation - from gradually easing sanctions to an eventual peace treaty, senior officials today.

"But, officials emphasized, these inducements would be phased in slowly only as North Korea starts surrendering its nuclear weapons, dismantling the facilities used to develop them and permitting inspectors free run of the country."

However, offering North Korea more carrots instead of sticks may backfire, according to the Cato Institute's Ted Galen Carpenter. "Given the failure of bribery in the past, there is little reason to assume that sweetening the bribe would induce Pyongyang to honor the commitments that it is already violating," he writes in "Options for Dealing with North Korea". "A new round of cheating would be likely.

"Washington should consider another approach. It should inform North Korea that, unless it abandons its nuclear program, the United States will encourage South Korea and Japan to make their own decisions about also going nuclear. That prospect might well cause the North to reconsider and keep the region nonnuclear. Even if it does not do so, a nuclear balance of power in northeast Asia might emerge instead of a North Korean nuclear monopoly."

D.C. Vouchers Clear Senate Panel

According to The Washington Post, "the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a $13 million school voucher plan for the District .... As Republicans easily advanced President Bush's initiative with support from Democrats who said the time had come to experiment with taxpayer-financed alternatives to public schools."

The Cato Institute's Casey Lartigue has written extensively on the need for education alternatives in Washington, D.C. In a policy analysis, "The Need for Educational Freedom in the Nation's Capital", Lartigue writes that "despite having per-pupil spending that ranks among the highest in the nation-$10,550 for 1999-2000-public school students in the District rank near the bottom on standardized tests and in achievement levels. Although spending has almost tripled since the 1980-81 school year and increased 39 percent since Mayor Anthony Williams took office in 1998, the system lacks qualified teachers, safe facilities, and even basic supplies such as pencils and textbooks. The system's leaders demand more money in exchange for more promises of improvement.

"To improve education in the nation's capital, we must consider options beyond spending more money in a system that even supporters acknowledge is troubled. Change must not be limited to propping up the current system. Public schools that are little more than holding pens must not be sheltered from private competition. The city must find a way to create competition within the system, with the goals of giving parents power over the education of their children, fostering an environment that will create a climate for education entrepreneurs to flourish, and taking education out of the hands of feuding politicians."

Access to Generic Drugs Not a Cure-all for AIDS-stricken Africa

According to The Financial Times, "A hard-won battle for access to cheap generic drugs leaves poor African countries ill-prepared to implement nationwide programs to treat AIDS sufferers, experts working on African health projects warn. World Trade Organization members reached a breakthrough deal last weekend to ensure that countries without the capacity to manufacture drugs themselves can continue to import cheap copies of patented medicines. But experts warned that many countries lacked sufficient health networks or trained personnel to ensure treatment was properly administered and followed up."

In "Demonizing Drugmakers: The Political Assault on the Pharmaceutical Industry", Cato Institute senior fellow Doug Bandow writes that "private charity ... can help at the international level. Rather than expecting drugmakers alone to bear the burden of caring for AIDS patients and those who suffer from malaria or any of a number of other deadly or debilitating diseases, residents of Western nations should generally contribute to ensure both access and adequate followthrough treatment."

Chris Kilmer, editor, ckilmer@cato.org