Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) adopted, on 9 November, the resolution for the 12th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference (MC12) with 20 votes in favour, 19 against and 3 abstentions.
The text recalls the Parliament’s expectations (see EUROPE 12813/11) in the run-up to the conference, which will be held from 30 November to 3 December.
The resolution “sends a clear signal about the deliverables we want to see: agreement on fisheries, a pandemic response, limited package on agriculture and the launch of work towards institutional reform”, said the text’s co-rapporteur, Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany).
The resolution, and in particular the compromise amendments voted on 9 November, stresses the need for WTO members to set a timetable for the reform of the institution. At the ministerial conference, stakeholders must “agree by the end of MC12 on an agenda for further work on the medium to long-term areas of reform, some of which should be completed before the subsequent Ministerial Conference (MC13)” say the MEPs.
Patent on Covid-19 vaccines
On the response to the pandemic and the lifting of patents on Covid-19 vaccines, MEPs adopted more moderate language than in their resolution adopted on 10 June (see EUROPE 12738/1). This time they recall that “the EU should actively participate in text based negotiations” at the WTO.
With less than a month to go before the 12th Ministerial Conference, the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council has still not reached an agreement on patents on Covid-19 vaccines.
The resolution by Bernd Lange and Sven Simon must now be voted on in plenary, probably during the second session in November.
See the draft resolution: https://bit.ly/3j5Wrrw (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)