[CTC] WTO countries indefinitely delay decision to expand vaccine IP deal

[Arthur Stamoulis]

WTO countries indefinitely delay decision to expand vaccine IP deal
BY ASHLEIGH FURLONG, POLITICO PRO | 12/16/2022 02:01 PM EST 
World Trade Organization countries today announced an indefinite delay on the decision to expand the June agreement on intellectual property rights related to COVID-19 vaccines to drugs and tests.

The news comes after a standoff this week between countries from the Global South and Global North, which saw the EU, U.K., U.S. and Switzerland support a delay in a decision until June 2023, while countries including South Africa, India, Pakistan and Tanzania, wanted a much earlier decision. Countries had previously agreed to decide on whether to extend the IP waiver deal to tests and treatments by Dec. 17.

Today, WTO members agreed to a very brief report that would ask the WTO’s General Council — which meets next week — to simply “extend the deadline” for a decision to be taken.

The pharmaceutical industry has strongly pushed back against any expansion of the COVID-19 vaccines agreement, arguing that it could have “long-term adverse effects on the current pipeline for COVID-19 therapeutics and for future pandemics.” The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations said today that it was disappointed that further time and energy would be devoted “to a discussion that fails to address the real challenges to access.”

On the other hand, supporters of extending the agreement to tests and treatments lambasted the further delay. “As many as seventeen million people are estimated to have died in the time that the WTO has bickered over intellectual property rules for tests and treatments,” said Max Lawson, co-chair of the People’s Vaccine Alliance and head of inequality policy at Oxfam. “To say that more time is needed to consider the issue is utter nonsense.”

WTO members agree to extend deadline for TRIPS talks
Inside US Trade, December 16, 2022 at 2:28 PM
World Trade Organization negotiators on Friday agreed to push back the Dec. 17 deadline for deciding whether to extend coverage of a intellectual property-related decision on COVID-19 vaccines to include tests and treatments – but they have not yet set a new end date for the talks.
The agreement comes after lengthy discussions on Thursday that were focused on the report about the negotiations to the General Council resulted in an impasse <https://insidetrade.com/node/175720>, echoing the ongoing division on the substance of the talks on expanding the so-called TRIPS waiver. In the end, a compromise was struck with very short and to-the-point language – proposed by U.S. Ambassador María Pagán – that eschewed any summary of the talks in favor of simply asking the General Council to bless a deadline extension, according to a Geneva-based trade official familiar with Friday’s quickly convened meeting of the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
“In view of paragraph 8 of the Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS Agreement adopted on 17 June 2022 (the ‘Decision’) providing that no later than 6 months from the date of this Decision members will decide on its extension to cover the production and supply of COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics, the TRIPS Council recommends that the General Council extend the deadline,” the report now reads, according to a WTO readout <https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news22_e/trip_15dec22_e.htm>.
The report does not include any recommendation on a new deadline, leaving the talks a problem to be solved in the new year. It will be presented at the formal General Council meeting set to begin on Monday.
In the mad dash on Friday to avoid overtly failing to meet a ministerial-agreed deadline, members met in a variety of configurations, including bilaterally and in small groups as the formal TRIPS Council session that was suspended more than once to allow for more such talks, according to the official in Geneva.
The brief report avoids issues raised on Thursday about a deadline for the TRIPS Council to report to the General Council on progress in the talks – set, in the draft report, as June 31, 2023 – and disagreements over a paragraph advocated by some developing countries that touted the World Health Organization’s expertise and advice.
The U.S. earlier this month proposed an extension of the deadline for six months <https://insidetrade.com/node/175614> and asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to study the production and supply of COVID-19-related tests and treatments. -- Hannah Monicken (hmonicken at iwpnews.com <mailto:hmonicken at iwpnews.com>)



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