The first meeting of the World Trade Organization in which a draft agreement was discussed for the temporary exemption of intellectual property rights for vaccines against COVID-19 went “very well”, its president declared on Friday.
The 164-member WTO debated the “final document” agreement, the fruit of months of negotiations between the main parties – the United States, the European Union, India and South Africa – in an effort to break an 18-month deadlock over the exemption to the rights of the Covid-19 vaccines.
“It has gone very well and here is why I say it. No member rejected the result as completely unacceptable,” Sierra Leone’s ambassador, Lansana Gberie, told Reuters after the meeting for the agreement on the exemption from the rights of the Covid-19 vaccines, held behind closed doors.
“Most said that this could be developed into a negotiating text and that is the path we have to follow,” he added.
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WTO advances on duty exemption for Covid-19 vaccines
The idea of the exemption, and which made the agreement possible, was proposed by India and South Africa in October 2020, has the support of the majority of the members of the world trade body.
However, some rich countries, such as the UK and Switzerland, have raised objections on the grounds that it could harm pharmaceutical research.
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who has been involved in brokering the talks and wants an agreement to be reached before the June ministerial conference, says a deal would be “hugely important”.
The new draft agreement, which has unresolved areas, must be approved by consensus and any member of the organization has the right to veto. One of the delegates described Friday’s meeting as the moment when the deal “rises or sinks.”
Privately, some delegates have said that a lack of public support for the deal from the main negotiating parties has sapped confidence from other members.
With information from Reuters.
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