World Trade Organization’s General Council meets in Geneva for first in-person session since COVID pandemic began – but fails to reach agreement on proposed IP waiver for COVID health products
Link to the source article >> https://healthpolicy-watch.news/89078-2/
World Trade Organization Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has ” high hopes” that the WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12) that convenes at the end of November can deliver decisions that curb harmful fisheries subsidies as well as improving access of low- and middle-income countries to COVID medicines and vaccines. But WTO members must overcome a series of hurdles to show results by the end of a year – and demonstrate the continued relevancy of the global trade organization, officials warned Tuesday, following the opening of a two-day General Council meeting.
Two weeks ago, Iweala declared that members were “on the cusp of forging a WTO agreement to curb harmful fisheries subsidies” – which undermine the environmental sustainability of ocean ecosystems, upon which billions of people worldwide depend for nutrition and food security.
However, as WTO General Council members huddled face-to-face for the first time in months, big decisions on both the fisheries issue as well as the thorny question of a proposed waiver on intellectual property rules for COVID-19 medicines and vaccines, were being still punted down the field to the autumn.
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