The Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, made a number of recommendations to WTO members, Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers and international organisations. She shared her remarks, on 14 April, during a WTO meeting on vaccine equity.
She said after the meeting that she expected the organisation's members to take “action to further reduce export restrictions and supply chain barriers, and to work with other organisations to facilitate logistics and customs procedures”.
She also said that she hopes negotiations in the WTO’s Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) regarding the waiver of patents on vaccines can move towards an agreement.
Vaccine manufacturers have a key role to play in guaranteeing a more equitable distribution, according to Ms Okonjo-Iweala. She called on them to speed up production by ensuring technology transfer and taking “steps towards long-term investments”.
Finally, she said that international and financial organisations could provide support for regulatory issues related to vaccines, treatments and diagnostics.
“I hope that besides concrete action to increase capacity, this discussion has given us elements of a framework on trade and health that we can put together at the WTO, and that can be put before ministers at the 12th Ministerial Conference in mid-December”, she concluded at the end of the meeting.
See the summary of the Director General’s meeting: https://bit.ly/3sozyBw (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)