[CTC] WTO members agree to weekly meetings to negotiate IP waiver

[Arthur Stamoulis]

WTO members agree to weekly meetings to negotiate IP waiver
June 18, 2021 at 8:30 AM, Inside US Trade

World Trade Organization talks on an approach to waiving some intellectual property obligations in response to the pandemic will speed up to a weekly clip ahead of a July General Council meeting, when members are hoping to report some progress.

During an informal meeting of the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property on Thursday, WTO members agreed that weekly negotiating sessions would begin on June 24. The chair, Norwegian Ambassador Dagfinn Sørli, plans to present a progress report to the General Council during its July 27-28 meeting. Members will take up both the proposed waiver of a swath of TRIPS Agreement commitments and a less broad proposal from the European Union.

Although text-based talks are proceeding in Geneva, countries remain divided on the proposed waiver, and progress is likely to come slowly. The June 24 meeting will be a discussion of the EU’s proposal <https://insidetrade.com/node/171473>, which the bloc said it would be converting into an official legal format before then.

The subsequent meetings will focus on specific aspects of the waiver, including scope, duration and implementation, according to a Geneva-based trade official familiar with the meeting. The first issue taken up, on June 30, will be scope.

The TRIPS chair, Norwegian Ambassador Dagfinn Sørli, told members he will hold smaller group discussions in between the weekly meetings, the official said. He also urged any countries aiming to put forward their own proposals to do so as soon as possible so they can be part of the discussions.

India and South Africa, the original sponsors of the waiver, argued that the EU proposal should be put on a different track, according to the Geneva official. The EU – and other developed countries, like Switzerland – insisted, however, that the European proposal should get equal footing in the negotiations.

Despite saying earlier this month <https://insidetrade.com/node/171510> that “a revised scope for discussion seems the most promising next step,” the U.S. on Thursday said it was not fully on board with taking up the scope as the first discussion. Instead, the U.S. advocated that members first determine their shared objective, according to the official.

The revised waiver proposal covers COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics, but the U.S. has indicated it wants the waiver to focus solely on vaccines.

The U.S. also was critical of the proposed schedule, the official said. The calendar should not be filled with meetings just for show, the U.S. argued, urging members to ensure they focus on substance and calling for more time for bilateral and small group discussions. The U.S. rejected the idea of setting a timeline yet, insisting it would not commit to a schedule until a process was in place for a consensus-based outcome.

The debate over the waiver has largely been split between developing countries in support and developed opposed. But the dynamic changed last month, when U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced U.S. support for a waiver. U.S. support provided momentum to push the circular discussions to text-based talks.

But several members, including the EU and Switzerland, remain deeply skeptical of the waiver. Critics in the U.S. – mainly congressional Republicans – have commended the opponents for holding the line, with some sending a letter <https://insidetrade.com/sites/insidetrade.com/files/documents/2021/jun/wto2021_0281.pdf> to Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. Koji Tomita this week. Japan has been skeptical of the TRIPS waiver proposal, though it did recently sign on to a statement <https://insidetrade.com/node/171484> pushing for text-based talks issued by Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade ministers.

In their letter, the 18 GOP House members argued that the waiver would not be a “silver bullet” and could provide “critical technology” to economic competitors like China. They lauded “Japan’s continued principled position and constructive leadership” on the issue and said they looked forward to working together to address vaccine access while protecting intellectual property. -- Hannah Monicken (hmonicken at iwpnews.com <mailto:hmonicken at iwpnews.com>) 

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




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