On Monday 20 April, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Roberto Azevêdo, and the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, made a joint appeal not to impede the international flow of essential medical supplies.
"Global action, solidarity and international cooperation are more necessary than ever to address this health situation" they said, adding that the WHO and the WTO were working together to this end.
"Protecting lives is our top priority, and these efforts can be impeded by unnecessary disruptions to global trade and supply chains", they said in a joint statement, which also called for keeping trade in health technologies as open and predictable as possible.
They also called for initiatives including targeted investment, ensuring open access to clinical test results, the sharing of relevant intellectual property rights, increasing manufacturing capacity, open and transparent procurement regimes, the elimination of tariffs on relevant health technologies, and trade facilitation measures to reduce costs and delays.
Restrictions on exports of medical products had also been at the centre of the Council of European Trade Ministers on 16 April (see EUROPE 12468/15), where the EU had drawn the first lessons from its trade dependence in these sectors, particularly with China and India.
While India has pledged to lift its ban on the export of paracetamol, as reported by EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides in a video conference with EU ministers on Monday 20 April, New Delhi intends to maintain its export bans on the active ingredients of paracetamol, as well as on hydroxychloroquine (with a few exceptions).
To read the statement: https://bit.ly/3cAXbPs (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel, with Sophie Petitjean)