Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh responded to statements by opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar about signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with vaccine developer Sinopharm. The Minister of Health takes note of the unfortunate statements made public by the Leader of the Opposition regarding the signing of a non-disclosure agreement with Sinopharm. A confidentiality agreement should specify exactly what is confidential, the scope of the obligation of confidentiality, the duration of the agreement and the exclusions of confidentiality. There are usually many circumstances in which it makes sense and strategic to create a legal framework to maintain trust. In a commercial context, the NDA prohibits parties from disclosing information to third parties, either during the negotiation period before the signing of the contract and/or after the signing of the contract. An NDA can be used when sharing a business idea with a potential partner or investor, financial and marketing expertise with a potential buyer (including customer databases), new technology or software, or when discussing the sale or licensing of a product or technology. NSOs are also useful when employees have access to confidential and proprietary information and an employer must protect that information from disclosure to outsiders. A confidentiality agreement can also be used to help the parties to a dispute find a confidential and binding solution. In this regard, many settlement agreements contain clauses in which the parties are required not to disclose or publish the terms of the agreement to third parties. She said: „Curiously, while Rowley explains that the government has not been able to do business with the multitude of vaccine manufacturers around the world, it has already signed a non-disclosure agreement with Sinopharm for the purchase of its vaccine. Rowley`s entire defense for not getting vaccines from suppliers is that he won`t sign a vaccine that doesn`t have WHO approval. But Sinopharm`s own vaccine does not yet have such approval.
Once you understand who should remain silent, you should include a clear definition of the information or type of information they should remain silent about. Defining what information to keep confidential can be tricky as you might be tempted to use broad language to minimize the risk of leaving open cracks through which information can slide, but on the other hand, if you`re not specific enough, your agreement can be difficult to enforce. In certain circumstances, it may be useful to include a provision that the information provided may only be used for that particular authorized purpose. For example, information transmitted from one company to another detailing the cost of manufacturing certain goods may only be used for the specific purpose of valuing the entity for the purposes of a merger. A non-disclosure agreement usually determines the consequences of a breach of the agreement. As with any other contract, in the event of a breach, the aggrieved party would have the right to make a claim in court against the other party in order to obtain damages from the court for the breach. The offending party may also face challenges to their credibility and reputation. First, you need to look at who the parties to the agreement are and what it is trying to achieve. A clear „party clause“ is important to ensure that information does not pass through a close party that could have been overlooked. Also, when considering who the parties are, you need to consider the nature of the non-disclosure agreement – as it is one-sided (e.g.
B, in the employer-employee context, where an employment contract imposes an obligation of confidentiality) or bilateral/multilateral (e.B. if two or more companies agree to share sensitive information to assess whether or not to deepen their relationships) and therefore the agreement could potentially provide that the information can be shared with each company`s external accountants, but that they must also keep it confidential. This article was written by Cherie Gopie, a partner at Mr. Hamel-Smith & Co., can be contacted at cherie@trinidadlaw.com. The NDAs have recently received negative media coverage due to allegations against Harvey Weinstein, Philip Green and others. Apparently, NDAs have been used (or abused) in agreements to resolve harassment and assault in the workplace. Such agreements often require a party to remain silent on certain allegations, usually in exchange for a monetary settlement. The practice of using an NDA to cover up allegations of harassment in the workplace has drawn significant (and understandable) criticism, and a committee set up by the House of Commons recommended that the government take steps to „ensure that NDAs cannot prevent legitimate discussion of allegations of unlawful discrimination or harassment.“ In response, Deyalsingh said the Ministry of Health had signed non-disclosure agreements with Pfizer and Sinopharm as part of the standard negotiation process.
There are two main forms of non-disclosure agreement, a mutual agreement or a non-reciprocal or unilateral agreement. A mutual agreement occurs when the two parties exchange confidential information and the non-reciprocal agreement is applicable, when it is provided that only one party shares confidential information with the other party. „I was in Tobago for a whole week interacting with a few people who were members of my family, my household and a few regular family members and friends,“ he said. Energy Secretary Stuart Young receives the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from Squadron Leader Marvin Bocas at Camp Ogden, Long Circular Road, St James, on March 17, while he was Secretary of National Security. It should be noted that the NDA should not prevent anyone from failing to report criminal behaviour to the police or an industry regulator or to raise the alarm. However, it can be an important tool in trade negotiations and crucial if sensitive information needs to be exchanged. This can go a long way towards building mutual trust and possibly assist in the negotiations for this agreement. COVID-19 cases are increasing in Caroni: more than 900 contacts identified „There are no vaccines to distribute in countries like ours. We should get this third tranche this June, which would have brought us to 100,000 that we had planned earlier in the program,“ he said. Rowley said that if the vaccines that emerge from these negotiations can be used to vaccinate children, they will be used to get children back to school.
Rowley tested positive for the virus in April, saying he didn`t know where or how he caught the virus. In addition to their misuse, non-disclosure agreements also exist for legitimate business purposes and are often used to protect real trade secrets and intellectual property. One could easily imagine the benefits of an NDA for a party presenting a prototype of a new invention to a potential investor, or for an employer who wants to part with an employee who would have had access to sensitive proprietary information, such as . B the secret ingredients of a recipe. Access to these vaccines will be useful as the Covax facility will not receive vaccines to distribute to its participants, he noted. Trinidad and Tobago has signed a confidentiality agreement with the United States, although it is still negotiating a donation of COVID-19 vaccines, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said yesterday. . „The price of Covax is not $15, I think we`re using $5 and that could be one of the reasons why Covax isn`t getting enough delivery or replenishmented because this deal was initial before the vaccines were approved and the price was set,“ Rowley said.
Finally, you should consider explicitly stating the consequences of violating the NDA. While the non-infringing party is usually entitled to damages due to a breach of contract, it may also be helpful to explicitly include other specific effects that would result from a breach – for example, you could include that a breach of confidentiality could provide a basis for termination of employment or explicit confirmation that the other party may become incapable. „If this third document is signed, we should have had a meeting with the supplier a few days ago, but this meeting has been postponed and it should take place in the next few days, maybe even today (yesterday) and maybe after that we would have finished all three documents and then the logistics and distribution could start..