<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">WTO members reject IP rules waiver for coronavirus technologies</span></b></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">By Helen Collis</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">10/16/2020<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">LONDON — World Trade Organization members on Friday rejected a proposal to temporarily waive intellectual property rights, patents and other protections for any medical technologies relating to Covid-19.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.9375rem 0px 0px; font-size: 1.125rem;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">The 164-member council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights failed to reach consensus on the proposal. Pitched by South Africa and India, it intended to guarantee all countries freedom to operate, innovate, procure and scale up manufacturing capacities in essential health technologies for Covid-19 until widespread global vaccination and immunity was developed.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">During a three-hour discussion, 16 members, including Egypt, Indonesia and Argentina, argued, inter alia, that current flexibilities in the agreement won’t guarantee timely access to vital supplies — such as diagnostics, personal protective equipment, medicines and eventually vaccines — during the pandemic.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.9375rem 0px 0px; font-size: 1.125rem;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">But other members — including the EU, U.S. and the U.K. — opposed the waiver. “There is no evidence that intellectual property rights are a genuine barrier for accessibility of COVID-19-related medicines and technologies,” a Commission spokesperson told POLITICO.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.9375rem 0px 0px; font-size: 1.125rem;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">“A waiver to the IP rights set out in the TRIPS Agreement is an extreme measure to address an unproven problem,”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-statement-to-the-trips-council-item-15?" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(0, 123, 199);" class="">added</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>the U.K. representative.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.9375rem 0px 0px; font-size: 1.125rem;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">A well-functioning IP rights system system is part of the solution rather than an obstacle, they said.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.9375rem 0px 0px; font-size: 1.125rem;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">With eight opposing members, and no consensus, the TRIPS Council is likely to revert the issue to the next meeting in early 2021, a Geneva trade official said. “In the meantime, delegations could hold meetings in order to find common ground.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class=""> </span></div></div><br class=""><div class="">
Arthur Stamoulis<br class="">Citizens Trade Campaign<br class="">(202) 494-8826<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">
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