[CTC] Reuters: No agreement yet on WTO vaccine waiver compromise, USTR's Tai says

[Arthur Stamoulis]

From: Melanie Foley <mfoley at citizen.org>
Subject: RE: Reuters: No agreement yet on WTO vaccine waiver compromise, USTR's Tai says
Date: March 30, 2022 at 5:20:30 PM EDT
Reply-To: Melanie Foley <mfoley at citizen.org>

For more context here are Tai’s words on the leaked text:
 
I'm aware there is a text that has been leaked through some process that purports to be a compromise agreement between these four parties at the WTO. Let me just clarify how I understand compromise to mean. It doesn’t mean that there is an agreement it means that the concept of a compromise is an outcome of a process and I will confirm that there has been a process that has been facilitated by the WTO director general in terms of having a discussion between the four WTO members. So just to clarify when you say that there is an agreement that there has been no agreement and I continue to emphasize the degree to which I as the USTR care very very much about this exercise of consultation and what you’ve just said to me about your concerns about intellectual property and who it’s used by is something that I have heard. 
 
Thanks,
Melanie
 
From: Melanie Foley <mfoley at citizen.org <mailto:mfoley at citizen.org>> 
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2022 5:16 PM
Subject: Reuters: No agreement yet on WTO vaccine waiver compromise, USTR's Tai says
 
Reuters
 
No agreement yet on WTO vaccine waiver compromise, USTR's Tai says
By Andrea Shalal, David Lawder
 
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/no-agreement-yet-wto-vaccine-waiver-compromise-ustrs-tai-says-2022-03-30/ <https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/no-agreement-yet-wto-vaccine-waiver-compromise-ustrs-tai-says-2022-03-30/>
3/30/22
 
WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) - There has been no agreement on the terms of a COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property waiver among four key World Trade Organization members, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Wednesday, casting doubt over the effort's future.

Tai told U.S. lawmakers that "there has been no agreement" related to a proposed IP waiver text that was leaked to media earlier this month.

She called the text the "concept" of a compromise coming from discussions facilitated by WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala between the United States, the European Union, India and South Africa.

Text of the proposed compromise seen by Reuters sought to waive IP rights to COVID-19 vaccines and supplies but it needed to be finalized and then presented to and accepted by the WTO's 164 member countries. read more <https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-eu-india-s-africa-reach-tentative-pact-covid-vaccine-ip-waiver-sources-2022-03-15/>
Tai's comments suggest that more work was needed to finalize the text amid some criticisms that the proposed compromise does not go far enough beyond a mandatory vaccine licensing regime.

She reassured members of the House Ways and Means Committee that the effort to increase vaccine access to developing countries aimed to preserve American intellectual property rights. The Biden administration first declared its support for an IP waiver for COVID-19 vaccines in May 2021.

Asked about the issue during a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee, Tai said, "On your question of whether or not we are working to give away American IP, no, we are not."

Tai added that she hears "loud and clear" the concerns voiced by some lawmakers that any waiver of intellectual property rights at the World Trade Organization could benefit China, but also noted that ending the pandemic was critical to ensuring global economic growth.

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