[CTC] U.S. Health, Civl Society Leaders Urge President Biden to Reject Leaked WTO Text

Wed Mar 30 14:22:56 PDT 2022

Press release with link to the US and international letters below...

Groups urge Biden to reject potential WTO 'concept' on COVID-19 vaccine barriers

By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) - Doctors without Borders, Oxfam America, Amnesty International and other top civil society groups on Wednesday urged U.S. President Joe Biden to reject a potential deal on COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property rights at the World Trade Organization.
In a letter, the groups called the proposal a "rehash" of a European Union position that fell far short of the rights waiver Biden backed in May 2021 to speed vaccines to developing countries.
"This leaked text ... would impose new conditions limiting the existing WTO rules that now allow countries to issue compulsory licenses for patented products," the organizations said.
They noted that India and South Africa, which had worked on the compromise language with the United States and the European Union, had not yet formally endorsed the "concept."
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Wednesday told U.S. lawmakers there was no agreement on what she called the "concept" of a compromise developed during discussions facilitated by WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
A text of the proposed compromise seen by Reuters earlier this month sought to waive IP rights to COVID-19 vaccines and supplies. It needs to be finalized and accepted by the WTO's 164 member countries.
Some critics argue that the potential deal does not go far enough beyond a mandatory vaccine licensing regime, while others see it harming the IP rights of big companies.
The groups urged Biden to redouble U.S. efforts to negotiate an "actual waiver" to boost COVID-19 vaccine production.
European civil society groups have voiced similar concerns in a separate letter to EU officials.
The U.S. groups said the potential deal would add burdensome conditions to WTO rules by requiring identification of all relevant patents, data that was not readily available.
"If adopted as-is, this text, while continuing to privilege Big Pharma monopolies and profits, would continue to deny access to lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines and treatments to millions around the world," the groups wrote. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Richard Chang)

For Immediate Release: March 30, 2022
Contact: Mike Stankiewicz, mike at tradejusticeedfund.org <mailto:mike at tradejusticeedfund.org>, (202) 255-7472

U.S. Health, Human Rights, Consumer and Faith Leaders Urge President Biden to Reject Leaked WTO Text and Fight for a Waiver of WTO IP Barriers Limiting Global Access to COVID-19 Vaccines, Treatments and Tests

Washington, D.C. — Leading U.S. organizations today joined their South Africa <https://healthjusticeinitiative.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/FINAL-SA-CSO-Letter-to-Minister-Patel-30-03-22-signatures.pdf>n and India <https://twitter.com/campaign4meds/status/1504424383171170306/photo/1>n counterparts in urging their government to reject a recently-leaked alternative to a waiver of World Trade Organization (WTO) intellectual property (IP) barriers. In a letter <https://tradejusticeedfundorg.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/potus_leakedwtoproposalltr_033022.pdf>, the groups called on President Biden to redouble U.S. efforts to urgently enact a waiver to boost production of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests necessary to save lives and stabilize the global economy.

European civil society organizations today also wrote <https://haiweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/CS-Letter-on_Leaked-Waiver-Text.pdf> to EU and EU member-country officials urging them to desist from pushing others to support the leaked WTO text, which reflects opposition to a WTO Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) waiver by pharmaceutical interests and EU trade officials. 

“This text is just another rehash of the EU’s efforts to thwart the very concept of a waiver, despite support for it by almost all other WTO nations. The text restates existing WTO rules that have proved unsuitable for boosting COVID-19 supplies as if they were new, and then imposes burdensome new conditions on nations seeking to use the existing flexibilities,” the letter notes.

Letter signers include Doctors Without Borders, Partners In Health, Oxfam America, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Public Citizen, Health GAP, Knowledge Ecology International, Treatment Action Group, NETWORK, Citizens Trade Campaign, Trade Justice Education Fund and ReThink Trade.      

“In sum, this text would not achieve any of the goals of the promised TRIPS waiver that a large majority of the world’s governments, including yours, and public health and faith leaders, have demanded. But it would establish dangerous new precedents limiting use of the existing, limited TRIPS flexibilities. This includes new obligations to identify all relevant patents implicated in authorization orders despite this information not being readily available and having to notify the WTO of authorized entities, receiving nations, quantities, and more. None of this is now required to use the existing WTO flexibilities that this text restates,” the letter states.

“If adopted as-is, this text, while continuing to privilege Big Pharma monopolies and profits, would continue to deny access to lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines and treatments to millions around the world. Thus, absent major improvements, we urge you to reject this text,” the letter states. 
The full letter is copied below:

President Joseph R. Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
                                                                                                                        March 30, 2022
Dear President Biden:

The undersigned leaders of U.S. health, human rights, consumer and faith organizations write to express our deep concern with the alternative to a waiver of World Trade Organization (WTO) intellectual property (IP) barriers that recently leaked. Your goal of saving lives worldwide from the ravages of COVID-19 will not be furthered by accepting this text, which would in practice be worse than the status quo with respect to global access to lifesaving vaccines and treatments. 

In May 2021, you called for a waiver of “intellectual property” barriers to support global production of COVID-19 vaccines. This leaked text, in contrast, would impose new conditions limiting the existing WTO rules that now allow countries to issue compulsory licenses for patented products.

The leaked text facilitated (and presumably prepared) by the WTO Secretariate codifies the lowest-common denominator of issues that have deadlocked WTO “TRIPS waiver” negotiations: European Union opposition to waiving WTO IP barriers and U.S. insistence that any text be limited to vaccines. India and South Africa have not agreed to the leaked text. 

This text is just another rehash of the EU’s efforts to thwart the very concept of a waiver, despite support for it by almost all other WTO nations. The text restates existing WTO rules that have proved unsuitable for boosting COVID-19 supplies as if they were new, and then imposes burdensome new conditions on nations seeking to use the existing flexibilities.

This text, which leading South African academics call “misleading” in a letter asking their president to reject it, also focusses only on patents. As Indian civil society groups note in a letter urging their Prime Minister to reject the text, it leaves in place IP barriers related to trade secrets and undisclosed data that can impede the expansion of vaccine production.

Even if these problems were remedied, this text does not apply to diagnostic tests and treatments.

When you announced support for a TRIPS waiver for vaccines, you called it an extraordinary measure to counter an extraordinary threat. Since then, the advent of highly effective anti-viral and monoclonal antibody treatments provide new life-saving tools, particularly given waning vaccine immunity. You said in your State of the Union address that an important way forward to counter COVID is “test to treat.” Yet we understand that the U.S. government continues to oppose removal of WTO IP barriers to boost access to life-saving treatments and tests for the rest of the world. This is not only unconscionable, it can severely undermine nations’ ability to manage and contain future outbreaks, leaving the world vulnerable to the continual rise of new COVID-19 variants.

The leaked text’s exclusion of some countries further undermines the ability to scale-up production and distribution of COVID-19 medications around the world even were the relevant IP barriers waived across vaccines, tests, and treatments.

In sum, this text would not achieve any of the goals of the promised TRIPS waiver that a large majority of the world’s governments, including yours, and public health and faith leaders, have demanded. But it would establish dangerous new precedents limiting use of the existing, limited TRIPS flexibilities. This includes new obligations to identify all relevant patents implicated in authorization orders despite this information not being readily available and having to notify the WTO of authorized entities, receiving nations, quantities, and more. None of this is now required to use the existing WTO flexibilities that this text restates.

That is why South African and Indian academic and civil society leaders consider adoption of this text to be worse than the already problematic WTO status quo. 

We urge you to insist on an actual waiver of the full range of IP barriers and end the U.S. refusal to include treatments and diagnostic tests. We urge you to insist on the removal of all TRIPS-plus measures, including patent-listing and WTO notification requirements.   

If adopted as-is, this text, while continuing to privilege Big Pharma monopolies and profits, would continue to deny access to lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines and treatments to millions around the world. Thus, absent major improvements, we urge you to reject this text.   

Sincerely,

Carrie Teicher
Acting Executive Director
Doctors Without Borders/Médicins Sans Frontieres (MSF)

Sheila Davis
CEO
Partners In Health

Abby Maxman
President and CEO
Oxfam America

Paul O’Brien
Executive Director
Amnesty International USA

Robert Weissman
President
Public Citizen

Sarah Yager
Washington Director
Human Rights Watch

James Love
Director
Knowledge Ecology International

Asia Russell
Executive Director
Health GAP

Mark Harrington
Executive Director
Treatment Action Group

Mary J. Novak
Executive Director
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice

Arthur Stamoulis
Executive Director
Citizens Trade Campaign

Lori Wallach
Director
Rethink Trade

Laura Peralta-Schulte
President
Trade Justice Education Fund

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

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