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US backs waiver of intellectual property in WTO over COVID vaccines | Coronavirus pandemic News

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The U.S. will support a proposal to suspend intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines, in line with efforts to increase global supply and access to life-saving shots as the gap between rich and poor countries widens.

“We are in favor of the WTO exception, we are in favor of what the proponents of the exemption are trying to achieve, which is better access, more manufacturing capabilities, more firearms,” said US Trade Representative Katherine Tai in an interview on Wednesday. .

The Biden administration will be actively involved in the negotiation of the waiver text at the World Trade Organization and will encourage other countries, said US Trade Representative Katherine Tai [File: Getty Images]

The Biden administration will be actively involved in the negotiation of the waiver text at the World Trade Organization and will encourage other countries to do so, Tai said.

He acknowledged that the talks would take time and “are not easy”, given the complexity of the issue and the fact that it is a member of the Geneva-based WTO and is an organization that can only make decisions by consensus.

“As for how long the WTO can spend, that literally depends on the WTO members being able to deliver collectively, so I’m the first to admit that this is a process that won’t be based on what we’re going to do. It’s easy,” Tai said. He added that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala sees the energy of the WTO’s CEO as “taking advantage of this opportunity and seeing what the WTO is capable of doing”.

India and South Africa, two nations trying to have new outbreaks of Covid-19, have called on WTO members to temporarily suspend IP rights rules, arguing that it would be the most effective and fair way to tackle vaccine shortages in poor countries.

Best Holdouts

The US is not the only country to have refused aid so far. The European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Switzerland, Brazil and Norway have also maintained their momentum. However, proponents of the exception argue that the U.S. issue could help encourage other adherents to the issue. The period of acceptance of the waiver shall depend on the extent to which the Member States can reach agreement.

“Given what’s at stake, this is the best opportunity for the WTO to come together to help people and give them something that will change something,” Tai said.

The drug perpetrators have objected and say the waiver plan is effective. They argue that few countries have the capacity to produce more vaccines, despite knowing the formulas. In addition, there is a global supply of the necessary materials and it may take years to build new plants with the technology needed to produce vaccines, they say.

As U.S. inoculations have progressed and outbreaks have declined in recent weeks, the White House has come under pressure from progressive democracies and public health advocates to take a stand after deliberating on the issue, especially in India especially as deaths and infections are on the rise.

As discussions between the organizations were ongoing, Tai also met with CEOs of all companies that produced vaccines and made calls to members of Congress and other civil society and public health actors.

At the WTO meeting on Wednesday, India and South Africa agreed to review the proposal presented in October for submission to members for a tentative meeting in the second half of May.

The role of Okonjo-Iweal

A WTO spokesman told reporters that Okonjo-Iweala is pleased to be willing to address concerns from India and South Africa in other countries by re-proposing their proposal.

In securing a U.S. position, the Tai and Biden teams had to balance the views of competing interest groups to ensure that any results on the issue would save their lives without stifling innovation.

While progressive lawmakers, including Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, have pushed for the White House to resign, the pharmaceutical industry has argued that delivering the vaccine technology to China and Russia would damage its ability to compete.

In April, Tai called on the pharmaceutical industry to make sacrifices.

“The desperate needs of our people living in the current pandemic offer them the opportunity to be the heroes that these companies say and can be,” he said at a virtual conference at the WTO. “As governments and leaders of international organizations, we need the highest levels of courage and sacrifice in times of crisis. The same must be said of the industry. ‘



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