[CTC] WTO chief urges negotiations to break vaccine waiver deadlock

[Arthur Stamoulis]

WTO chief urges negotiations to break vaccine waiver deadlock 
BY DOUG PALMER, POLITICO PRO | 05/05/2021 01:24 PM EDT

World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Wednesday urged countries to begin "text-based" negotiations on a developing country request for a broad waiver of intellectual property rights protections on Covid-19 vaccines, instead of continuing an 8-month-old debate on the proposal. 

"She thinks without [text-based negotiations], it will be very hard to resolve this," WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell told reporters after a WTO General Council meeting where the issue was discussed.

Rockwell emphasized that Okonjo-Iweala hasn't taken a position on a request by South Africa and India — which developed country vaccine producers including the United States and the European Union have opposed. He also said there's no consensus among members that the text-based negotiations are appropriate at this point. 

'Sense of urgency' needed: During the General Council meeting, Okonjo-Iweala told members they need to "have a sense of urgency" to resolve the issue because a global economic recovery "cannot be sustained unless we find a way to get equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics," Rockwell said. 

Despite the continued impasse, Rockwell said the discussions on Wednesday were much more constructive than some previous WTO meetings on the issue, with less "finger-pointing" by each side.

"One thing that is absolutely clear is that all parties have the same objective, which is to ramp up production and improve the efficiency and the equity of the distribution process," Rockwell said. "It's clear that not enough vaccines are getting to the developing world, and this is a concern that everyone expressed today." 

Revised proposal coming: South Africa and India have recently said they plan to revise their proposal, but there are few details about how it could be changed. The revised proposal is expected to be discussed at an informal meeting of the WTO Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property, or TRIPS, later this month, Rockwell said.

Forty-two delegations spoke on the issue Wednesday. That included the United States, which was represented by David Bisbee, the highest-ranking official now at the U.S. mission to the WTO. There had been some expectation that U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai would speak, but she did not. 

Bisbee told the group the United States was committed to working with WTO partners to find "pragmatic and effective" global solutions to the pandemic, Rockwell said.

Other action needed: Okonjo-Iweala urged countries to take other steps to address the vaccine shortage, while they continue to discuss the IP waiver request.

Specifically, she said countries that have surplus vaccines need to share them with others and all members should remove any export measures that block access to supplies that manufactures need to make the vaccines, Rockwell relayed.

There also needs to be a stronger effort to identify excess manufacturing capacity in countries such as Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, South Africa, Indonesia and Senegal that could be used to make the medicines, he said.

Okonjo-Iweala also stressed countries such as Russia, China, Brazil and Cuba, where some vaccines are under development but not yet approved, should "be in contact with the World Health Organization to get emergency use authorization to enable universal access," Rockwell said.


Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




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