Biden pressurized to support India’s TRIPS waiver proposal on COVID-19 vaccine

The US lawmakers and civil society groups want President Joe Biden to support a proposal to waive some intellectual property commitments at the WTO in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The waiver, which would apply to a swath of obligations under the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), is set to be discussed at the General Council meeting next week and the domestic advocates hope that the Biden administration will use the opportunity to reverse the previous administration’s opposition to the proposal.

India along with South Africa is at the forefront in a proposal introduced in October 2020, before the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the TRIPS council, for a waiver during Covid-19 to allow more countries to get equitable access to medicines. Earlier, 57 members of the WTO supported India’s proposal for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver on Covid-19 vaccines. The issue has galvanized advocacy groups as a question of equity. The waiver, which would apply to a swath of obligations under the WTO Agreement on TRIPS, is set to be discussed at the General Council meeting next week.

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The push comes as poorer countries are trailing significantly behind richer countries in administering vaccines. According to the United Nations last week, 130 countries have not received a single dose of any Covid-19 vaccines, reported Inside US Trade.

US lawmakers from the Democratic Party have also joined the forces to persuade Biden to agree to the waiver proposal. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who is spearheading a letter to the President with fellow members of Congress, will urge him to support the waiver. Schakowsky said that the letter had 30 signatories and would be sent to Biden.

The letter from the civil society groups urges Biden to “break with the unconscionable policies Trump supported” by backing the waiver. The letter argued that the benefits are threefold. Firstly, the groups said that the waiver “could save millions of lives.” Secondly, “ending the COVID-19 pandemic as quickly as possible worldwide is also necessary to reboot the global economy on which so much of the US economy relies”. And, finally, a US reversal of its opposition would “help restore America’s moral and public health leadership in the world”.

The pressure on the Biden administration comes as poorer countries are trailing behind richer countries in administering vaccines. Last week, the UN had reported that 130 countries have not received a single dose of any COVID-19 vaccines. The developing countries have proposed a waiver for temporarily suspending provision in the TRIPS Agreement relating to copyrights, industrial designs, patents, and protection of undisclosed information in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic by ramping up production of medical equipment, therapeutics, and vaccines across many countries.