Despite India push, global IPR waiver proposal for COVID vaccines stagnates at WTO

More than 16 months after India's proposal to temporarily suspend certain parts of the WTO Agreement on TRIPS so that vaccines and testing technology for COVID-19 could be easily shared, developed nations have continued to hold up talks. Suspending parts of the agreement would allow countries to overcome the legal challenges posed by patents to ensure timely provisioning of affordable medical products.

While India has the unofficial backing of more than 120 countries, major global powers have continued to stall the talks, citing grave discomfort at a “potential blanket suspension of the terms of the TRIPS agreement”, a senior Commerce Department official said.

"As opinion on the issue has continued to fracture, in January, India had pushed for the long-awaited Ministerial Conference to be held online, along with a series of virtual discussions among nations to discuss possible paths ahead. But diverging views have led to the initiative not being successful," a senior Commerce Department official said.

He added that while the government was actively working towards making the global vaccine waiver a reality, at the moment it was not planning a coordinated effort at the WTO.

The vaccine waiver proposal has continued to be staunchly opposed by a handful of wealthy nations from the European Union bloc, Switzerland, Norway and the United Kingdom. “These nations continue to be emboldened by the noncommittal position of the United States, which has continued to drag its feet on the issue," a senior trade negotiator said.

He added that there was little that could be done to break the deadlock right now even though India's proposal has the support of almost all WTO member nations. “Since all WTO decisions have to be unanimous, there is nothing that can be done even if a single nation is unwilling,” he stressed.

Last week, Geneva Health Files, a Switzerland-based newsletter portal that tracks developments in intellectual property, reported that efforts were underway at the WTO to fundamentally change the vaccine waiver and cut out India, South Africa, China, and other developing nations from discussions.

This was based on the premise that ongoing meetings over the waiver were held among richer economies under the ambit of the WTO. These members had discussed the option of 'geographical exclusion', whereby COVID drug manufacturers in certain countries may be exempted from the waiver. However, India is not expected to comment on this at the WTO and will not be fighting the issue as of now, sources said.

“Countries such as Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Norway, Australia, and others had discussed the issue among themselves. Under WTO rules, any number of nation groupings can hold any number of meetings on a relevant issue, after the General Council has opened it for consultations. Every nation would want to discuss their views. India has made its views known," a senior Geneva-based official said.

The global trade body has also been unable to hold its all-important Ministerial Conference (MC) meetings. Talks have gone awry in the absence of scheduled MCs held by the WTO, which are attended by Trade Ministers of all member nations and take joint decisions affecting global trade rules.

The pandemic had initially scuttled plans for the 12th MC to be held in June 2020 in Kazakhstan. Subsequently, the third wave of COVID infections in Europe halted plans to hold the MC in Geneva in December 2021.