Is the delay the defeat of the TRIPS Waiver discussions at the WTO?

Newsletter Edition #140 [Geneva Health Files News Flash]

Hi,

The fight may be on, but there is a palpable sense of resignation among some of the supporters of the TRIPS waiver. Supporters include not only WTO members and co-sponsors, but also other epistemic communities (IP scholars, activists, nurses, Nobel Laureates, economists, lawyers, Heads of State, students, among others) that have contributed and shaped these discussions over the last 18 months.

Negotiations continue on the text proposed by WTO DG Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. No consensus has been reached yet. Battle-weary observers are holding on to clues in these on-going discussions looking for precedence, trying to understand what all this sound and fury will actually mean for the future.

Check out today’s story that takes stock on the positions and the politics around these discussions.

Exceptionally, we bring you this edition today, out of step with our usual publication schedule on Fridays. We are calling it the news flash when stories cannot wait in a fast-evolving negotiating cycle. We are trying to keep up, making sure we are not only close to the action (like any other nosy reporter), but at the same time, keeping a distance to ensure that we have the right perspective on these continuously changing negotiations.

We urge our readers to support us by becoming paying subscribers. Information gathering and analysis, costs time and resources. Thank you for your engagement.

Until later!

Priti

Feel free to write to us: patnaik.reporting@gmail.com or genevahealthfiles@protonmail.com; Follow us on Twitter: @filesgeneva

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STORY OF THE WEEK

Is the delay the defeat of the TRIPS Waiver discussions at the WTO?

With barely 10 days left for the WTO ministerial conference, countries are increasingly under pressure to arrive at a consensus on the text proposed by DG Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Members have met in small group discussions over the last few weeks, that have included participation of up to 30 members. Countries with smaller delegations have been spread thin across multiple, parallel negotiations at the WTO in the run up to the ministerial conference (12-15 June 2022) including for disciplines such as agriculture, fisheries among others.

This analysis is based on the negotiations the version of the text dated May 30, seen by Geneva Health Files. We are unable to share the text. (But see a version of the text [May 25] published by Bilaterals.org.)

Supporters of the original TRIPS Waiver proposal say that current negotiations are mostly limited to vaccines, at a time when there is a surplus of vaccines production. And the text continues to have TRIPS-plus provisions, seeking stronger obligations than is currently mandated by the WTO TRIPS Agreement, some of which have been suggested by the UK and Switzerland, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

It is understood that the current text has a set of clarifications and a waiver of a single provision of the TRIPS Agreement.

Photo by Markus Spiske: Pexels