India on Friday expressed hope for an early decision in the WTO on a proposal of India and South Africa for a temporary waiver of certain intellectual property rights provisions in the TRIPS agreement to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. In October 2020, India and South Africa submitted a proposal suggesting a waiver for all World Trade Organization (WTO) members on the implementation of certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement in relation to the prevention, containment or treatment of COVID-19. The agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights or TRIPS came into effect in January 1995. It is a multilateral agreement on intellectual property (IP) rights such as copyright, industrial designs, patents and protection of undisclosed information or trade secrets.
Ramaphosa calls on South Africans to support TRIPS waiver proposal
Activists outside Pfizer headquarters in Manhattan, New York demand that US President Joe Biden support the TRIPS waiver, which would lift the intellectual property protection for Covid-19 vaccines.
(Photo: Steven Francis Kong)
In his weekly letter, President Cyril Ramaphosa called on “all South Africans” – particularly civil society organisations – to support the country’s call for a temporary waiver of aspects of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. This would allow all countries to access the technology and know-how to produce Covid-19 vaccines and medicines. Read the letter in full here.
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The Biden-Harris administration announced on May 5 its intent to support a waiver on intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines. The scope of any potential waiver is subject to further negotiation at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Any decision made at the WTO level requires a consensus among all of its 164 members.
Proponents of the waiver include India and South Africa, which argue that such an effort is needed to make the vaccines more widely available. The European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, and other nations have so far opposed the COVID-19 vaccine IP waiver.
Centre took more than six months to put its act together on the domestic front and shortlisted three PSUs only by April 2021 for technology transfer of Covaxin.