[CTC] Citing administration’s IP waiver support, Sen. Lee blocks Pagán nomination

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Citing administration’s IP waiver support, Sen. Lee blocks Pagán nomination
By Hannah Monicken, Inside US Trade 
12/16/2021
 
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) on Wednesday announced he would hold up María Pagán’s nomination as U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization – a deputy U.S. Trade Representative role – until he receives “assurances” from the Biden administration related to the proposed, and controversial, WTO waiver of some intellectual property obligations for pandemic-related products.

Pagán, deputy general counsel at USTR, last month was advanced <https://insidetrade.com/node/172689> out of the Senate Finance Committee 27-1. A few senators raised concerns about the waiver, which would apply to commitments under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, during her confirmation hearing in October.

Lee on Wednesday said he did not object to Pagán as WTO ambassador, but to the administration's positions she would represent in Geneva.

“I have no concerns with this individual in particular; rather, with the authority that she might wield and the assurances I am wanting to receive from the administration on that authority, some assurance that this administration will not unilaterally wipe out intellectual property protections that have resulted in the vast majority of COVID–19 remedies,” Lee said on the Senate floor. “All I want is some assurance from the administration.”

The Biden administration announced it would support a TRIPS waiver for vaccines earlier this year. The proposal, put forward by India and South Africa in October 2020, would waive a swath of TRIPS provisions – including patents, trade secrets and copyright – for COVID-19-related diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. Much of the WTO membership supports a waiver, although not all support the expansive original version – including the U.S. There are also a few holdouts that continue to oppose the wavier – namely, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The negotiations on the waiver have largely stalled <https://insidetrade.com/node/172764>.

Lee and other lawmakers, largely Republicans, have railed against the administration’s support of the waiver, arguing it is bad for innovation and could result in the U.S. giving away IP to China. Lee called TRIPS a “vital” part of international law and insisted his concern was not “unreasonable.” On Wednesday evening, he formally objected to moving forward on Pagán’s nomination in the Senate after Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) asked unanimous consent that it be considered.

“All I want is some assurance from the administration that it is not going to wipe out intellectual property protections. That wouldn’t be right. They know it is not right,” Lee said. “They give me those assurances, we can move on.”

USTR did not immediately return a request for comment.

Wyden argued that as COVID-19 continues to surge, especially with the emergence of the omicron variant, the U.S. “needs to do everything possible to get shots in arms including having the right people in Geneva to find solutions to the availability and distribution of vaccines.” He called it “urgent business” and said he would work with Lee to hash out the issue.

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20211216/22eef23a/attachment-0001.html>