[CTC] More statements on WTO outcome

Fri Jun 17 04:54:39 PDT 2022

Statements from Public Citizen, Rethink Trade, MSF/Doctors Without Borders, Peoples Vaccine Alliance and USTR below...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 16, 2022
CONTACT: Matthew Groch, mgroch at citizen.org <mailto:mgroch at citizen.org>

Undemocratic WTO Processes Produce Shameful Result on  <https://www.citizen.org/news/undemocratic-wto-processes-produce-shameful-result-on-covid-trips-waiver-at-12th-ministerial/>
Intellectual Property and Covid at 12th WTO Ministeria <https://www.citizen.org/news/undemocratic-wto-processes-produce-shameful-result-on-covid-trips-waiver-at-12th-ministerial/>l 

In the wee hours of the morning, WTO members announced they reached consensus on the WTO’s response to the pandemic that includes a text related to the TRIPS agreement and Covid vaccines that public health organizations and experts have vigorously opposed <https://www.citizen.org/article/leaked-wto-proposal-is-not-the-covid-19-medicines-waiver-we-need/>. More than 250 public health, labor, human rights, and consumer organizations from across the globe are now calling on governments <https://tradejusticeedfund.org/wp-content/uploads/PostMC12CalltoAction_BadDeal.pdf> to bypass the WTO's prioritization of pharmaceutical monopolies over human lives.

In response, Melinda St. Louis, Global Trade Watch director at Public Citizen, issued the following statement:

“It's shameful that today, WTO members prioritized trying to save a floundering institution and obscene corporate profits over saving lives.

“In the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic that shuttered the global economy, it was a no-brainer that the WTO should have immediately delivered an emergency waiver of its own intellectual property rules that impede rapid production of Covid vaccines, tests, and treatments. 

“And yet, the European Union blocked meaningful action on an overwhelmingly popular waiver of the TRIPS agreement for nearly two years. Despite its expressed support for a waiver, the United States did not do nearly enough to deliver a meaningful outcome, and even blocked efforts to include tests and treatments as well as vaccines. 

“The result today is that, once again, the shameful, undemocratic WTO process allowed rich countries representing corporate interests to strongarm a sham agreement that bears no resemblance to the original waiver proposal and will do nothing to help save lives for this or future pandemics.

“The worldwide movement that supported countries in the Global South that proposed a comprehensive TRIPS waiver and fought valiantly for nearly two years, will not throw in the towel, just because WTO members decided to today. 

“As U.S. civil society organizations, we demand that the U.S. government, having failed to deliver on President Biden’s promise to remove intellectual property barriers to vaccines at the WTO, pledge unilaterally to refrain from using WTO or other trade and investment dispute mechanisms to stop or dissuade countries from producing, distributing or using Covid medical technologies or from sharing information on how to do so.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 17, 2022 
FOR MORE INFO: Robyn Shapiro rshapiro at economicliberties.us <mailto:rshapiro at economicliberties.us> (201) 819 2526

Rethink Trade Condemns WTO Failure to Waive IP Barriers Blocking Global Access to COVID Vaccines, Treatments, Tests

European Union, UK, Swiss Assist Pharma Corporations in Blocking Even Temporary Patent Waivers for Vaccines; U.S. Insists Text Not Apply to COVID Treatments 

Governments Must Take Every Action to Save Lives Using WTO Flexibilities When Possible or Defying WTO Rules When Necessary; Pledge Ceasefire on COVID Meds Policy Trade Attacks

WASHINGTON, DC: The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Ministerial meeting ended without waiving intellectual property (IP) barriers that have blocked billions of peoples’ timely access to lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. Instead of a waiver supported by more than 100 countries, a rump text written by WTO staff was railroaded through. That document combines European Union, UK and Swiss fealty to Big Pharma in not waiving any intellectual property barriers and U.S. insistence it cover only vaccines, not the COVID-19 treatments at the heart of the U.S. test and treat strategy. Lori Wallach, director of Rethink Trade at the American Economic Liberties Project, said:

“Two years, 15 million dead and 100 countries supporting a waiver, yet scandalously the WTO could not even get its intellectual property barriers out of the way so people worldwide can get the best COVID vaccines and treatments needed to save lives and ensure a more deadly variant does not emerge.

This outcome is a dangerous public health fail that threatens us with more deadly COVID variants and more economic pain, but it’s also a vulgar display of multilateralism’s demise when a few rich countries flacking for pharmaceutical corporations get an assist from a global institution’s staff to block the will of 100-plus countries united to improve access to medicines in a deadly pandemic. Rethink Trade supports the unions and civil society organizations throughout Africa, Asian, and Latin American that called on their governments to reject this text.

Going forward, efforts for global access to COVID vaccines, treatments and tests can only escalate in scope and tactics given the WTO legal mechanism designed for such emergencies has failed. 

Civil society worldwide has united in a call <https://tradejusticeedfund.org/governments-must-break-big-pharma-wto-stranglehold-on-access-to-medicine/> for governments to take every action to save lives using WTO flexibilities when possible or defying WTO rules when necessary and for countries to pledge a ceasefire of not using WTO or other trade mechanisms to attack other countries’ COVID medicine access policies.

Certainly, no one engaged in the fight for global access to COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests is giving up or going away, because it’s not possible to do so when tens of millions of lives and livelihoods are at stake.

PLEASE DON’T MISNAME MINISTERIAL COVID TRIPS DEAL IF ONE EMERGES: IT’S NOT A “VACCINE PATENT WAIVER” OR AN “IP WAIVER”

Text on Table Would Only Lift Some TRIPS Art. 31f Procedures for Exporting Products Made by a Subset of Nations Under Existing WTO Compulsory Licensing Rules that Have Proved Inadequate for C-19 Vaccine Production

SOUTH AFRICA/INDIA TRIPS WAIVER
CURRENT TEXT ON TABLE AT WTOMINISTERIAL
(WTO Secretariat 5/3/22 text based on EU 5/21 non-waiver counterproposal)
WAIVER OF TRIPS PATENT OBLIGATIONS
YES
NO
WAIVER OF TRIPS COPYRIGHT OBLIGATIONS
YES
NO
WAIVER OF TRIPS TRADE SECRETS/UNDISCLOSED DATA OBLIGATIONS (Technology transfer, test data)
YES
NO
WAIVER OF WTO DISPUTE RESOLUTION MECHANISM CHALLENGES OF NATIONS’ ACTIONS UNDER DEAL
YES
NO
SUSPENSION FOR SOME NATIONS OF PROCEDURES FOR EXPORTING PRODUCTS MADE UNDER COMPULSORY LICENSING ALREADY PERMITTED IN TRIPS ART. 31
NOT NECESSARY BECAUSE OBLIGATIONS ARE WAIVED
YES
For More Information, please contact Lori Wallach, Rethink Trade    lwallach at RethinkTrade.org <mailto:lwallach at RethinkTrade.org>

BACKGROUND: Yesterday, Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal <https://theprint.in/economy/we-are-getting-completely-half-baked-deal-on-trips-waiver-proposal-goyal/996763/> said of the rump text:“…what we are getting is completely half-baked and it will not allow us to make any vaccines. They have no intentions of allowing therapeutics and diagnostics...” The Mexican Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion, Hugo López-Gatell <https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/6/14/global-health-is-on-its-deathbed-we-need-vaccine-waivers-now> said yesterday of the text: For almost two years, a handful of rich countries have resisted a life-saving proposal <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/10/countries-continue-push-for-equal-access-to-coronavirus-vaccines> tabled by India and South Africa that could speed up global COVID-19 vaccination, making a mockery of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Now, these countries are attempting to stitch up the process in order to put the profits of big pharma over people’s lives… Ahead of these meetings, a damaging new proposal <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/16/wto-chief-welcomes-covid-shot-patent-plan-drugmakers-balk> has emerged that is being pushed by the European Union and WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. This proposal would be worse than none at all.”

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Inability to agree a real pandemic intellectual property Waiver at WTO is a devastating global failure for people the world over  

MSF is disappointed in the inadequate outcome after nearly two years of discussions at the WTO  

Geneva, 17 June 2022  

Background: Today, more than 20 months since India and South Africa first proposed <https://msfaccess.org/landmark-move-india-and-south-africa-propose-no-patents-covid-19-medicines-tools-during-pandemic> a landmark intellectual property (IP) Waiver for COVID-19 medical tools at the World Trade Organization (WTO), governments have reached a decision at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva this week (12-15 June). The decision text contains a set of clarifications of the existing public health safeguards and a limited exception for the procedure of using compulsory licensing for export of COVID vaccines by eligible countries, for a duration of five years. 

Dr. Christos Christou, International President of MSF: 

“We are disappointed with the inadequate outcome on waiving intellectual property for COVID-19 medical tools that resulted from more than 20 months of deliberations.  

We acknowledge that a few changes were made to the agreement that mitigated some of the most worrisome elements of the earlier text presented in May 2022, but overall, we are disappointed that a true intellectual property waiver, proposed in October 2020 covering all COVID-19 medical tools and including all countries, could not be agreed, even during a pandemic that has claimed more than 15 million people’s lives.  

This agreement fails overall to offer an effective and meaningful solution to help increase people’s access to needed medical tools during the pandemic, as it does not adequately waive intellectual property on all essential COVID-19 medical tools, and it does not apply to all countries. The measures outlined in the decision will not address pharmaceutical monopolies or ensure affordable access to lifesaving medical tools and will set a negative precedent for future global health crises and pandemics.  

Throughout the pandemic, MSF has repeatedly pointed out the challenges and struggles faced by frontline healthcare workers in providing care for people facing COVID-19. Despite lofty political commitments and words of solidarity, it has been discouraging for us to see that wealthy countries failed to resolve the glaring inequities in access to lifesaving COVID-19 medical tools for people in low- and middle-income countries. 

Without agreement on a true global solution to ongoing access challenges, MSF now urges governments to take immediate steps at the national level to make sure people have access to needed COVID-19 medical tools. Governments should consider using all available legal and policy options <https://msfaccess.org/sites/default/files/2020-07/MSF-AC_COVID-19_IP-monopolies_briefing-doc_July2020.pdf>, including suspending intellectual property on COVID-19 medical tools, issuing compulsory licenses on key medical technologies to overcome patent barriers, and adopting new laws and policies to ensure the disclosure of essential technical information needed to support generic production and supply.  

MSF also calls on governments to take concrete steps to rethink and reform the biomedical innovation system to ensure that lifesaving medical tools are developed, produced and supplied equitably where monopoly-based and market-driven principles are not a barrier to access. It is time to prioritise saving lives instead of protecting corporate and political interests.” 

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WTO VACCINE DEAL: “A TECHNOCRATIC FUDGE AIMED AT SAVING REPUTATIONS, NOT LIVES”, CAMPAIGNERS SAY
Release date: 17 June 2022

Responding to news that governments at the World Trade Organization (WTO) have agreed a deal on patents for COVID-19 vaccines in developing countries, Max Lawson, Co-Chair of the People’s Vaccine Alliance and Head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam, said:

“The conduct of rich countries at the WTO has been utterly shameful. The EU has blocked anything that resembles a meaningful intellectual property waiver. The UK and Switzerland have used negotiations to twist the knife and make any text even worse. And the US has sat silently in negotiations with red lines designed to limit the impact of any agreement.

“This is absolutely not the broad intellectual property waiver the world desperately needs to ensure access to vaccines and treatments for everyone, everywhere. The EU, UK, US, and Switzerland blocked that text. This so-called compromise largely reiterates developing countries’ existing rights to override patents in certain circumstances. And it tries to restrict even that limited right to countries which do not already have capacity to produce COVID-19 vaccines. Put simply, it is a technocratic fudge aimed at saving reputations, not lives.

“South Africa and India have led a twenty month fight for the rights of developing countries to manufacture and access vaccines, tests, and treatments. It is disgraceful that rich countries have prevented the WTO from delivering a meaningful agreement on vaccines and have dodged their responsibility to take action on treatments while people die without them.

“There are some worrying new obligations in this text that could actually make it harder for countries to access vaccines in a pandemic. We hope that developing countries will now take bolder action to exercise their rights to override vaccine intellectual property rules and, if necessary, circumvent them to save lives.”

/ Ends

Notes to editors

Spokespeople are available for interview in Geneva, where the WTO is hosting its 12th ministerial conference.

In October 2020, South Africa and India proposed a broad waiver of the Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) agreement covering COVID-19 vaccines, tests, and treatments. The EU, UK, and Switzerland blocked that proposal. The US supported an IP waiver for only vaccines. The final text agreed is a watered down waiver of one small clause of the TRIPS agreement relating to exports of vaccines. It also contains new barriers that are not in the original TRIPS agreement text.

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STATEMENT FROM AMBASSADOR KATHERINE TAI ON AN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

GENEVA – United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai today released the following statement after the World Trade Organization (WTO) Members reached an outcome on an intellectual property response to the COVID-19 pandemic during the 12th Ministerial Conference.

“Last May when I announced the Biden Administration’s support for a waiver of intellectual property protections for vaccines as part our comprehensive effort to end the pandemic, many doubted that the WTO could rise to the occasion and reach an outcome. But that’s exactly what we have done.

“The text-based negotiations with other WTO Members that we called for have produced accommodations to the intellectual property rules for COVID-19 vaccines that can facilitate a global health recovery.  Through difficult and protracted discussions, Members were able to bridge differences and achieve a concrete and meaningful outcome to get more safe and effective vaccines to those who need it most.

“This agreement shows that we can work together to make the WTO more relevant to the needs of regular people. During a global pandemic, under difficult circumstances, the WTO moved quickly to address a major global challenge and respond to the strong desire of our African partners to produce a meaningful outcome. Consultations with our stakeholders in the private sector and civil society, with Members of Congress and their staffs, and colleagues across the Administration, were critical in informing USTR’s understanding of the nuances in the global market, production challenges, and the public health needs of the world’s people.

“Going forward, the Biden Administration will continue work with WTO Members, the private sector, and other partners to expand vaccine manufacturing and distribution to facilitate the global health recovery needed for a robust global economic recovery.”

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Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

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