“It is not acceptable that 80% of doses administered are in the richer countries”, said World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at the European Commission’s Trade Policy Day on Monday 26 April.
Invited to speak on trade and health issues, she emphasised the need and opportunity for a WTO solution on Covid-19 vaccine patents.
“We need two things: ensure developing countries’ access manufacturing, and make sure we don’t disincentivise research and innovation. Now I don’t think these two things are incompatible.”
The debate on the lifting of intellectual property rights, which has been going on in the WTO for several months, is divided into two camps. Developing countries led by South Africa and India, on the one hand, want to lift patents on vaccines to increase production capacity. On the other hand, developed countries want to encourage innovation and reassure laboratories by protecting intellectual property rights.
With the debate at the WTO Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) deadlocked (see EUROPE 12704/5), Ms Okonjo-Iweala is confident that a compromise can be found.
“I want WTO members to come to the table, on the flexibility of the waiver, how we make sure we incentivise research. We need to bring those two concerns together in a pragmatic way”, she said.
For EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, who was discussing the issue with her, the perspective is somewhat different. Lifting patents in itself is not sufficient, in his view (see EUROPE 12704/5). “It doesn’t help to just waive intellectual property rights, you need cooperation between companies with the know how. [...] The TRIPs framework has the flexibility to create conditions for this to happen”, he reiterated in the exchange.
WTO challenges
The WTO Director also took the opportunity to reiterate her desire to move the work at the WTO forward before the 12th Ministerial Conference in December this year. “We have to deliver successes to prove WTO can still do it”, she said.
The three priority areas, she said, were the fisheries subsidies negotiations, trade and health, and agriculture. “I want to make sure we come out of the 12th ministerial conference with three successes”, she insisted. She added that digital, environmental, and gender issues were also fundamental. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)