[CTC] A month from deadline, US remains silent on TRIPS expansion

[Arthur Stamoulis]

A month from deadline, WTO unable to break TRIPS expansion impasse
Inside US Trade, November 22, 2022 at 3:12 PM
World Trade Organization members remain divided on whether to expand agreed intellectual property flexibilities for COVID-19 vaccines to tests and treatments, leaving an agreement looking unlikely by a deadline now less than a month away.
Negotiators met in Geneva on Tuesday to reflect on the state of the talks and review the results of consultations held by the chair of the Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, Sierra Leone Ambassador Lansana Gberie, who entreated members to submit concrete proposals with little time left before the Dec. 17 deadline, according to a Geneva-based trade official familiar with the meeting.
The chair, the official said, told members he did not see any movement toward convergence. During Tuesday’s meeting, WTO members largely repeated their positions, the official said, with three main approaches still in play: Full support, partial support advocating for a negotiated list of covered tests and treatments, and skepticism.
Many early proponents of the broad TRIPS waiver, a much narrower compromise version of which was agreed to at the 12th ministerial conference in June, want the MC12 decision to be expanded to include diagnostics and therapeutics without any changes. These include India and South Africa, the original co-sponsors of the TRIPS waiver proposal. The European Union, Switzerland, Japan, Korea and Singapore, on the other hand, continue to call for “concrete” evidence that IP barriers are hindering access to tests and treatments before the MC12 decision is expanded. A few countries – including China and Mexico – have staked out a compromise position in pushing for a list of covered tests and treatments.
Notably, the U.S. did not take the floor, the official said. The Biden administration has in previous meetings said it was continuing its domestic consultations on the issue but has never explicitly endorsed or rejected the idea. Although the administration is being lobbied by civil society groups to agree to the expansion, a number of lawmakers – particularly Republicans, but also some Democrats – are either against the idea <https://insidetrade.com/node/175512> or have raised concerns <https://insidetrade.com/node/175435> about it. During the TRIPS waiver negotiations, the administration made clear it would support a waiver for vaccines, but never mentioned support extending to diagnostics and therapeutics.
Adding to the political tightrope for the administration is that a Republican House majority has indicated it plans to pursue an investigation <https://insidetrade.com/node/175265> into aspects of the administration’s participation in the TRIPS waiver talks.
Two more meetings to discuss the TRIPS decision expansion are planned, for Dec. 2 and 16, just before the Dec. 17 deadline. An earlier meeting in November was postponed <https://insidetrade.com/node/175361> to Tuesday when the chair determined there was no progress to be made and opted instead for additional consultations.
According to the Geneva official, Gberie called on delegations to work on the issue “urgently,” with an eye toward putting forward concrete proposals, and to conclude domestic consultations that will allow members to make decisions.
If members can’t find consensus by the Dec. 17 deadline, they could opt to give themselves more time for discussions. If there is no consensus and no additional time agreed to, the expansion would not be approved, and diagnostics and therapeutics would not be covered by the MC12 decision. -- Hannah Monicken

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




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