The Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is becoming seriously impatient with the lack of progress by delegations in the negotiations on the patent waiver for Covid-19 vaccines.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala attended an informal meeting at the WTO on intellectual property on Thursday 19 May and warned delegations against not reaching an agreement by the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) in June. “Perfect is the enemy of the good”, she warned, according to a Geneva source. She implored the delegations to negotiate night and day to come to an agreement.
Negotiations based on the text of the March 2022 quadrilateral agreement between South Africa, the US, India and the EU (see EUROPE 12912/9) started on 17 May. The chair of the WTO’s Intellectual Property Council, Lansana Gberie, said on 19 May that members were not moving fast enough given the urgency of the situation, according to the same Geneva source. Mr Gberie lamented that delegations were delaying discussions on the pretext that they needed to consult their capitals.
In particular, Switzerland and the UK have repeatedly asked for clarifications about the text. Switzerland explained on 19 May that it would have to analyse the proposal and consult its government, if necessary, and undertook to do so in the most efficient way possible.
A few days earlier, the Swiss delegation had reiterated its position that intellectual property is not a barrier to global vaccination against Covid-19, according to the same source. According to Switzerland, it is now the administration of vaccines that is the problem, not their availability. The country therefore questioned the impact of the quadrilateral agreement on this problem.
Discussions are to continue in the coming days, with a view to reaching a consensus by the time of MC12, which will take place from 12 to 15 June. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)