India trying to build consensus over vaccine patent waiver, resists agri talks as WTO summit enters last day: Officials

World Trade Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland

India is still trying to build consensus among member nations as the fifth and final day of the biennial summit of the World Trade Organization (WTO) begins, officials said.

Certain compromises may need to be made for the proposed global Covid vaccine intellectual property rights waiver deal to roll out as soon as possible, senior officials tracking the developments told Moneycontrol. But talks on agriculture and fisheries remain stuck as New Delhi remains against the positions taken by most developed economies which deny equitable measures to the developing world, they added.

The once-in-two-year mega meeting of trade ministers from all 164 World Trade Organization (WTO) member nations, which legislate on global trade, is ongoing and has seen tense discussions on almost all issues.

But as member nations struggle to compromise on almost all key issues, the 12th biennial summit of the WTO has been extended. It will now end on 16 June, with the closing session scheduled to begin at 6:30 PM Indian Standard Time on Thursday after an intervention by WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

The WTO Director-General called on member nations to go the extra mile to find convergence on the various issues at stake at the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) and to be mindful that time is running out to conclude meaningful agreements.

India’s stance on the issue is being closely watched by almost all major economies as every decision at the WTO is taken unanimously and even a single dissenting voice can shut down the entire process.

Vaccine patent waiver

Talks on speeding up deliveries of Covid vaccines, drugs and therapeutics to the poorest nations has seen some progress, albeit not in the direction that India wanted, officials said.

Nearly 20 months after India proposed to temporarily suspend certain parts of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) so that vaccines and testing technology for COVID-19 could be easily shared, developed nations have continued to hold talks.

Suspending parts of the agreement would allow countries to overcome the legal challenges posed by patents to ensure the timely provisioning of affordable medical products. At MC12, the developed nations have been allowed to cover only vaccines as part of the agreement and leave out all other treatments, diagnostics, or other COVID-19 technologies.

The draft text is seen by opponents as too narrow in scope because reports from the WTO headquarters in Geneva have suggested that the latest text focuses solely on the use of the compulsory licensing system. This would allow governments to permit the manufacture of vaccines and other medicines without infringement of intellectual property (IP) rights during an emergency such as a pandemic.

Officials said India remains committed to the issue as the nation which had originally proposed the idea. "There is a sense that some dissenting nations may become amenable to our demands and allow other diagnostics and tech if certain provisions were added to specify which categories would be covered rather than an umbrella agreement," a senior official said.

Slow progress

Fisheries subsidies and agriculture have emerged as especially hard points of negotiation. A long-planned, but never enforced global deal at the WTO aimed at banning fishing subsidies to protect marine ecosystems from overfishing and habitat collapse has seen increased fighting. Overwhelmingly statements made by members stressed the need to conclude an agreement after more than 20 years of discussions.

India has said that developed nations with huge industrial fleets of vessels that have systematically exploited oceanic resources and contributed to overfishing should be held responsible and a stronger global regime should be enforced to rein them in.

Officials said that while the overall scope of the deal remains limited, it remains a good start. However, India is looking to secure commitments from richer nations that developing nations get a longer staging perio

Meanwhile, a proposed global declaration to not curb foodgrain exports to the World Food Programme (WFP), which seeks to fight hunger in places hit by conflicts, disasters, and climate change, has been blocked by India.

On the third day of the summit, a proposed global declaration to not curb foodgrain exports to the World Food Programme (WFP), which seeks to fight hunger in places hit by conflicts, disasters, and climate change, is one of the main items on the agenda. The declaration will be binding and goes against the demands of India to exercise its right to control its food exports.

Officials have told Moneycontrol that India will not yield to pressure and is not willing to accept the plan when its right to stockpile food grains is still not accepted. Sources again confirmed on Thursday that the proposal was non-negotiable in its current form.