[CTC] U.S. lawmakers ask for meeting on WTO waiver with Merkel during Washington visit

Tue Jul 13 03:43:13 PDT 2021

Link to letter and list of signers below

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-wto-merkel-idUSKBN2EJ07M <https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-wto-merkel-idUSKBN2EJ07M>

U.S. lawmakers ask for meeting on WTO waiver with Merkel during Washington visit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nine Democratic U.S. lawmakers on Monday urged Germany to drop its “blockade” of a COVID-19 related waiver of intellectual property rights under global trade rules, and asked Chancellor Angela Merkel to meet with them during her visit to Washington.

Representative Jan Schakowsky, part of the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives; Representative Earl Blumenauer, who leads the trade subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee; and the other lawmakers said they were troubled that Germany was leading EU opposition to a proposed waiver being discussed at the World Trade Organization.

“The United States and almost every other WTO member seeks to enact a COVID emergency temporary TRIPS waiver as quickly as possible,” they wrote in a letter to German Ambassador Emily Haber, adding that production of COVID-19 vaccines must be increased to save millions of lives.

“Thanks to IP barriers, it is the U.S. and German firms that have the only approved COVID-19 mRNA vaccines that hold the monopoly power to decide if this scale-up will occur,” they wrote.

The German embassy had no immediate comment.

Biden administration officials say the waiver will help boost global production of coronavirus vaccines. German officials and pharmaceutical companies have argued that companies invested their own funds to develop vaccines and that waiving their IP rights would undermine such work in the future.

Merkel will meet with President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday for a wide-ranging discussion that will touch on the global response to the pandemic and the proposed waiver of IP rights, a senior administration official said on Monday.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday said that the president was a “strong proponent” of the waiver, but that it was just one of several tools that could be used to boost COVID-19 vaccination rates around the world.

Supporters of the waiver plan various protests during Merkel’s visit to Washington, including a “die-in” near the White House and a giant Merkel puppet on Thursday, organizers said.

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https://schakowsky.house.gov/media/press-releases/schakowsky-colleagues-request-meeting-merkel-discuss-european-union-blocking
Schakowsky, Colleagues Request Meeting with Merkel To Discuss European Union Blocking TRIPS Waiver
July 12, 2021  Press Release 
Third Waves Rage Around The World As New Variants Create New Threats
WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, a Senior Chief Deputy Whip and Chair of the Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee, led a letter to the German Ambassador urging the nation to reconsider it continued opposition to a waiver of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property (TRIPS waiver). Specifically, the group is requesting a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will be in Washington this week to meet with President Biden. Schakowsky was joined by Representatives Earl Blumenauer, Rosa DeLauro, Lloyd Doggett, Andy Levin, Adriano Espaillat, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Barbara Lee, and Angie Craig.

The letter, in part, reads:

“We are troubled by the European Union’s continuing opposition to this initiative, which we understand is a position led by Germany within the EU. The United States and almost every other WTO member seeks to enact a COVID emergency temporary TRIPS waiver as quickly as possible. In advance of/when Chancellor Merkel is in DC the July 15 summit with President Biden, we respectfully request an opportunity to meet with her to discuss the urgency of Germany ending its blockade against adoption of a waiver.

“Scaling up much greater production of mRNA vaccines is necessary to save millions of lives and livelihoods. Thanks to IP barriers, it is the U.S. and German firms that have the only approved COVID-19 mRNA vaccines that hold the monopoly power to decide if this scale-up will occur. This summit will decide the fate of tens of millions of people.”

This same group of legislators led a group of 110 Member of Congress to call for the White House <https://schakowsky.house.gov/media/press-releases/majority-democratic-caucus-call-white-house-support-trips-waiver-global-vaccine> to support the TRIPS waiver. In May, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced that the Biden-Harris Administration supported the TRIPS waiver <https://schakowsky.house.gov/media/press-releases/members-congress-led-push-trips-waiver-applaud-biden-administration>, in response to the extraordinary threat the coronavirus continues to pose around the world.

A full PDF of the letter is available HERE. <https://schakowsky.house.gov/sites/schakowsky.house.gov/files/Germany%20Letter.pdf>
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Related Items: 
Majority of Democratic Caucus Call on White House to Support TRIPS Waiver for Global Vaccine Access <https://schakowsky.house.gov/media/press-releases/majority-democratic-caucus-call-white-house-support-trips-waiver-global-vaccine>
Pod Save the World Discusses TRIPS Waiver <https://schakowsky.house.gov/media/videos/pod-save-world-discusses-trips-waiver>
Members of Congress that Led Push for TRIPS Waiver Applaud Biden Administration Announcement <https://schakowsky.house.gov/media/press-releases/members-congress-led-push-trips-waiver-applaud-biden-administration>

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

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