Richard Tren

Richard Tren is Director of the Washington D.C.-based pro-DDT lobby group, Africa Fighting Malaria (AFM). . He is also an adjunct fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute. A brief biographical note from 2002 described him as being "instrumental in founding" AFM and that he was an "an independent environmental economist based in Johannesburg" who had "been researching the issue of water in South Africa, a water-poor country." A 2004 biographical note stated that he was both a director of AFM and a "frelance writer." He is a council member of the Free Market Foundation, a South African think tank. This is a position he has held since at least 2005.

Between 2002 and the end of 2003 he was also a columnist for Tech Central Station, a conservative website established by James Glassman and published by the PR firm, the DCI Group. Tren's columns flagged opposition his to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and opposition to the use developing countries governments issuing compulsory licences to allow the use of generic drugs as an alternative to expensive patented drugs. Other columns have been in support of free trade policies and critical of groups, such as Oxfam, which support fair trade policies. He has also had opinion columns published in the Wall Street Journal supporting the brand-name drug companies and Business Day in South Africa, the Business Standard in India.

He also also co-authored books critical of World Bank opposition to the tobacco industry in developing countries, restrictions on the use of insecticide such as DDT in malaria control and in support of privatized water supply.

While Tren has argued that malaria requires urgent action, he has also sought to downplay concern that global warming will extend the range of malarial mosquitoes. In October 2008 Tren was a presenter at the Liberty Institute Conference on Climate Change in New Delhi in parallel with the eighth meeting of member parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In its 2003 annual report, AFM wrote that the seminar was held in "order to explain the uncertainties surrounding the climate change science and to highlight that there is no simple link between climate change and infectious diseases. Historical evidence suggests that it is mankind’s activities that have by far the greatest effect on diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. The relationship between climate and these vector borne diseases is highly complex and the claims that higher temperatures and rainfall will increase the incidence of vector borne diseases are simplistic and unhelpful."

Background
A biographical note at the end of a report he co-authored with Roger Bate in 2001 states that "he was born and grew up in South Africa, but received most of his higher education in the UK. After reading economics at St. Andrews University in Scotland he went on to study at L’Universita Luigi Bocconi in Milan in 1993, and then worked in the financial sector in London for two years. Mr. Tren obtained his MSc in Environmental and Resource Economics from University College London and then returned to South Africa, where he has since worked on a wide range of research projects. Mr. Tren has worked on several water-resource projects for research institutions and for the South African government. He has recently become a research fellow of the Environment Unit at the Institute of Economic Affairs. Another version of the report published in the same year featured a slightly different version of his biographical note, stating that he "works as a consultant and has completed research projects for, among others, the Institute of Economic Affairs (where he is a Fellow), the South African government and numerous private companies and organisations."

In 1999 Tren co-authored a report, published by the Institute of Economic Affairs, which was critical of a World Bank report supporting tobacco control. The one sentence biographical note at the front of the report stated that Tren was from "RJT Environmental Economics" and was a "consultant to SA Government, South Africa." The report was cited approvingly in an internal British American Tobacco set of background notes. Referring to the World Bank report, the BAT notes stated that it "has already been criticised by the renowned academics and economists Professor Deepak Lal, Richard Tren and Hugh High in a the UK's Institute of Economic Affairs document, Smoked Out: Anti-Tobacco Activism at the World Bank."

A biographical note states that he "has been the Director of AFM since its inception in 2000, and in 2006 was appointed as the chairman of the AFM board. Richard is South African, though he moved to AFM's Washington, DC office in January 2006. He has published widely on the political economy of malaria control as well as on other topics of healthcare and development."

The biographical note appended to a pro-DDT column by Tren, originally published by the United Press International in November 2002, states that "Mr Tren has a close association with G&G and G&G plays a role in Africa Fighting Malaria."

Funding
In the period between 2003 and 2005, despite all the columns written by Tren as a director of AFM, the IRS returns indicate that he was paid nothing. However, with Tren's move to Washington D.C in 2006. he took on the role of being both a board member and a director and was paid $59,167. As Director and Chairman in 2007, Tren was paid $82,916.

Quotes

 * "Reducing the power of government to allocate resources by ensuring that individuals and corporations have full control over their own resources appears to be the obvious solution to so many economic and social problems in South Africa, not least of which is water allocation. Recognising the rights of water users to secure title over their resource, and allowing them to trade that resource, could be the single most important step that government could take to ensure efficient and equitable water use." -- Roger Bate & Richard Tren February 2002.


 * "Generic drugs can certainly play an important role in any health system, but if AIDS patients in 10 years time are going to have any effective drugs (generic or otherwise), then the research-based drug companies will have to be encouraged to develop new treatments and vaccines. This means respecting intellectual property and providing a more conducive regulatory environment. It also means encouraging economic growth in other ways--and a good way to start is to create a culture that protects property rights, starting with those of the poor--so that a market for their products actually develops in Africa, India and China. It does not mean imposing price restrictions or threatening compulsory licensing--such actions will only act as disincentives to the development and marketing of new drugs." -- Richard Tren, Africa Fighting Malaria, July 2002.


 * "Addressing health needs in poor countries like India, Zimbabwe and Botswana is no easy task -- and it certainly will not be helped by undermining patents under the guise of protecting public health. The best way of ensuring improved health and health-care systems in developing countries would be for them to grow wealthy. Wealth creation, technology transfers and the confidence of investors, however, will be undermined by moves to weaken the IP regime, which will simply keep countries poor and unhealthy longer." -- Barun Mitra, Liberty Institute, India and Richard Tren, Africa Fighting Malaria, September 2002.


 * "Public-private partnerships have many advantages, but when governments interfere with pricing and profitability, it results in a distortion of the market. This stops the private sector from building sustainable water systems and creating wealth. While there might be a public-health benefit from clean water and sanitation, general government subsidies benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor, who end up paying exorbitant prices for water that is trucked into townships and villages. A preferred alternative to subsidies might be to give poor people vouchers for water and sanitation services. If governments are serious about providing clean water, they should vest more control in water users and suppliers through property rights, eliminate harmful water subsidies and remove power from bureaucrats who hand out favors." -- Richard Tren and Kendra Okonski, March 2003.


 * "The climate change controllers are proposing a restrictive agenda that undermines liberty and centralises control over energy use and economies in general. It is understandable that this is being championed by leftist environmental groups; through the Kyoto Protocol they can achieve the type of socialist planned economy that so disastrously failed mankind and harmed the environments of the countries that previously centralised all decision-making. In advocating the control of earth’s climate they show themselves to be motivated by the desire to control rather than by any genuine concern for mankind or the natural environment. -- Richard Tren, December 2003. 9This is from a review of Kendra Okonski's book, Adapt or Die – the science, politics and economics of climate change, Profile Books, 2003.


 * "ITNs [insecticide treated bed nets] can be effective, but promoting them to the exclusion of IRS [indoor residual spraying with pesticides such as DDT] is dangerous and costs lives. ITNs do not provide the same kind of protection that IRS does." -- Richard Tren, April 2004.

Books and Reports by Tren

 * Richard Tren and Hugh High, Smoked Out: Anti-Tobacco Activism at the World Bank: A review of: Curbing the Epidemic: Governments and the Economics of Tobacco Control, World Bank, 1999, 1999.
 * Richard Tren and Roger Bate, Malaria & the DDT Story, Institute of Economic Affairs, December 2001, ISBN 0255364997.
 * Roger Bate and Richard Tren, The Cost of Free Water: The Global Problem of Water Misallocation and the Case of South Africa, Free Market Foundation, February 2002.
 * Julian Morris, Rosalind Mowatt, W. Duncan Reekie and Richard Tren, Ideal Matter: Globalisation and the Intellectual Property Debate, Centre for a New Europe, June 2002. ISBN 90-75724-23-3
 * Roger Bate and Richard Tren, "Malaria and Patents" in TRIPS and Healthcare: Rethinking the debate, International Policy Network, July 2001.

Contact Details
Richard Tren 1050 17th St NW # 520 Washington, DC 20036 Tel: +1 202 223 3298 Fax: +1 202 223 3646 Web: http://www.fightingmalaria.org

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * privatization

2001

 * Richard Tren, "Ending Patents Not the Cure", Business Day, (South Africa), March 5, 2001.
 * Richard Tren, "We need greater patent protection and greater profits, not less", Business Day, March 5, 2001.
 * Richard Tren and Julian Morris, "Vacines Key to Healthy Africa", Business Day, May 14, 2001.
 * Roger Bate and Richard Tren, " TRIPS and Healthcare: Rethinking the Debate: Malaria and Patents", International Policy Network, July 2001.
 * Richard Tren and Julian Morris, "Patents not real villain in blocking access to drugs", Business Day, November 9, 2001.

2002

 * Roger Bate and Richard Tren, "Trading in water will lead to its efficient use and most equitable allocation", Free Market Foundation, February 21, 2002.
 * Richard Tren, "The Boys From Brazil", Wall Street Journal'', February 25, 2002.
 * Richard Tren, "Deathly Bans", Tech Central Station, April 29, 2002.
 * Richard Tren, "Doctors Without Principles," Tech Central Station, June 13, 2002.
 * Richard Tren, "Free the Industry, Not the Drugs", Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2002.
 * Richard Tren, "Giving Tolerance a Bad Name", Tech Central Station, September 3, 2002.
 * Barun Mitra and Richard Tren, "Protecting Patents, Saving Lives", Commentary, Wall Street Journal, September 26, 2002.

2003

 * Richard Tren, "Climate change and disease – the issue is wealth not warming", Free Market Foundation, January 22, 2003.
 * Richard Tren and Kendra Okonski, "How to Solve the Water Conflict", Wall Street Journal, March 27, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, "Fighting AIDS in Africa: What Works", Tech Central Station, May 14, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, "Partners, Patents and Problems", Tech Central Station, May 22, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, "CORE Problem", Tech Central Station, June 4, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, "The poor pay the highest price for the plastic bag regulation", Free Market Foundation, June 10, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, "Bag Gag Blues", Tech Central Station, June 12, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, ""Greenpeace policies keeping Africa poor", Checkbiotech.org, June 18, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, "Africa needs healthy trade", Free Market Foundation, July 29, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, "EU = Equality Undermined", Tech Central Station, August 13, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, "Don't Gut GATS", Tech Central Station, September 13, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, "Fair Trade? For Whom?", Tech Central Station, September 11, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, "Beware the World Aid Organisation", Tech Central Station, October 20, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, 'We Have All Lost', Tech Central Station, September 15, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, "Being Nice Isn't Enough", Tech Central Station, October 9, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, "Thank Goodness for Racist Canadians", Tech Central Station, October 20, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, "Legislating medical aid out of the consumer’s hands", Free Market Foundation, November 11, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, "Combating AIDS on the Ground in Africa", Tech Central Station, November 18, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, "Water is not ‘different’", Free Market Foundation, November 25, 2003.
 * Richard Tren, "Silly season heats up", Free Market Foundation, December 23, 2003.

2004

 * Roger Bate and Richard Tren, "Guilty of 'Medical Malpractice'" Washington Times, January 16, 2004.
 * Richard Tren, "Africa’s citizens pay a heavy price for donor aid", Free Market Foundation, January 27, 2004.
 * Richard Tren, "Beware the bitter pill that may destroy all other pills", Free Market Foundation, February 10, 2004.
 * Richard Tren, "Aiding and Abetting Poverty", tech Central Station, February 26, 2004.
 * Richard Tren, "DDT has radically reduced malaria deaths in South Africa", Free Market Foundation, April 13, 2004.
 * Richard Tren, "Where DDT Works," Tech Central Station, April 26, 2004. (This article was originally published on Tech Central Station but only available online in the Internet Archive). (Tren's biogrpahical note at the foot of this column states that he is "a regular contributor to TechCentralStation.")
 * Richard Tren, "The Real Obstacles to Treating AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis in Developing Countries", May 12, 2004: Speakers included Nicholas Eberstadt, Scott Gottlieb, and Richard Tren.
 * Richard Tren, "The Good and Bad News at the WHA", Free Market Foundation, June 1, 2004.


 * Roger Bate, Donald Roberts, Christopher Curtis, Richard Tren, Brian Sharp, and Clive Shiff, "Malaria Control and Public Health", Emerging Infectious Diseases (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), June 1, 2004.
 * Roger Bate, and Richard Tren, "The Real Obstacles to Sound Treatment of AIDS in Poor Countries", Health Policy Outlook, July-August 2004.
 * Roger Bate and Richard Tren, "The Real Obstacles to Sound Treatment of AIDS in Poor Countries", AEI Health Policy Outlook, July-August 2004.
 * Richard Tren, "Give back to the jobless the right to choose", Free Market Foundation, October 5, 2004.
 * Richard Tren, "Malaria - SADC gets it right while the UN gets it wrong", Free Market Foundation, November 9, 2004.
 * Roger Bate and Richard Tren, "Malaria Rates Underscore Need to Set Aside Costly Taboos," Journal of the South African Institute of International Affairs, December 1, 2004.
 * Richard Tren, "Vioxx: More regulation would be medical malpractice", Free Market Foundation, December 14, 2004.
 * Richard Tren, (Speaker at "The Continued Economic Burden of Malaria." AEI-Brookings Conference on Risk, Science, and Public Policy", October 12, 2004. Other speakers included Roger Bate and Jasson Urbach.

2005

 * Richard Tren, "Price controls reduce the availability of medicines", Free Market Foundation, January 25, 2005.
 * Roger Bate, and Richard Tren, "Despotism and Disease", Paper for Africa Fighting Malaria, March 11, 2005.
 * Richard Tren, "The Injustice of Trade Justice", Free Market Foundation, April 19, 2005.
 * Roger Bate Richard Tren, Jasson Urbach, "Taxed to Death", AEI-Brookings Joint Center Related Publication, April 2005.
 * "The Malaria Fight Continues", undated, accessed May 2005.
 * "The Cost of Free Water", undated, accessed May 2005.
 * Richard Tren, "Mozambique forgets its past and faces a bright future", Free Market Foundation, August 2, 2005.
 * Roger Bate and Richard Tren, "DDT Saves Lives in Fight against Malaria", CEI's On Point, November 1, 2005.
 * Philip Coticelli & Richard Tren, "Let DDT take care of malaria scourge", Business Day, November 8, 2005.
 * Richard Tren, "Abolish exchange controls now", Free Market Foundation, November 15, 2005.

2006

 * Roger Bate, and Richard Tren, "Brazil's AIDS Program: A Costly Success", Health Policy Outlook, no. 1, January 2006.
 * Richard Tren, "Tear down the deadly trade barriers", Free Market Foundation, February 26, 2006.
 * Roger Bate and Richard Tren, "Government-Controlled Pharmaceutical Research and Development: A Recipe for Disaster", Health Policy Outlook, no. 8, 2006.
 * Roger Bate, Richard Tren and Jasson Urbach, "Still Taxed to Death: An Analysis of Taxes and Tariffs on Medicines, Vaccines and Medical Devices", AEI-Brookings Joint Center Related Publication, updated February 2006.
 * Roger Bate, Kathryn Boateng, Lorraine Mooney, and Richard Tren, "Tariffs, Corruption and Other Impediments to Medicinal Access in Developing Countries: Field Evidence", Working Paper, August 4, 2006.
 * Roger Bate and Richard Tren, "The WTO and Access to Essential Medicines: Recent Agreements, New Assignments", Health Policy Outlook, no. 4, 2006.
 * Roger Bate, Philip Coticelli, and Richard Tren, "Moving Mountains: The Evolution of USAID's Malaria Control Program", Africa Fighting Malaria, December 12, 2006.
 * Richard Tren, Speaker at "International Health Policy Decisions and the Future of HIV Treatment", March 2, 2006. Other speakers were Jerry Norris, Jim Driscoll and Roger Bate.

2007

 * Roger Bate, Archbishop Pius Ncube, Richard Tren, and Jasson Urbach, "Tyranny and Disease: The Destruction of Health Care in Zimbabwe", Africa Fighting Malaria, September 2007.
 * Roger Bate, Philip Coticelli, and Richard Tren, "A Field Report of Uganda's Efforts to Build a Comprehensive Malaria Control Program", Africa Fighting Malaria, September 2007.

2008

 * Roger Bate, Amir Attaran, Philip Coticelli, and Richard Tren, "Antimalarial Drug Quality in the Most Severely Malarious Parts of Africa: A Six Country Study", PLoS One, May 7, 2008.
 * Richard Tren, "Economic Freedom is never assured: Zambians should defend theirs", Free Market Foundation, November 25, 2008.
 * Richard Tren, " Pesticides: an alternative view from Africa Fighting Malaria", Pesticide Information.eu, October 19, 2008.