Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama and Paraguay have spoken out against the transparency and licensing mechanism for Covid-19 vaccine exports set up by the EU at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) General Council on 1-2 March. They had called, on 18 February, for “restraint in adopting and implementing such measures” in a communication to the WTO.
According to a WTO official, 18 WTO member countries spoke at the meeting on Tuesday 2 March. “A majority of them agree that the distribution of vaccines should not be subject to trade barriers”, the same source added.
In its initial communication of 18 February, the group of five countries expressed concerns that the EU mechanism would disrupt global supply chains and distribution. They were also concerned that this measure sets a precedent and negatively affects “current and future equitable access to essential medicines for all WTO members”.
The European Union defended itself, as it has done regularly for the past month. According to a WTO official, it reminded the meeting that countries participating in the Covax initiative, developing countries and neighbours were exempt from the mechanism and that absolutely all requests made had been allowed so far.
WTO members also spent 2 days discussing issues such as fisheries subsidies, e-commerce and health-related trade. The main objective of these discussions is to make progress towards conclusions in order to prepare the next ministerial conference in November 2021. The General Council of the WTO continues on Thursday 4 March and members will have to consider, among other things, the appointment of the next chairpersons of the General Council and the bodies that report to it.
See the communication from the five Latin American countries: https://bit.ly/387bADz (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)