WASHINGTON, D.C. – More than 170 national and state public health, faith and trade organizations urged the Biden administration to reject the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) alternative to an intellectual property waiver for COVID vaccines, tests and treatments and push for a comprehensive waiver that expands global access to lifesaving COVID medications.
“A year and a half ago, India and South Africa first introduced a proposal that has since earned the support of more than 100 countries, including 63 formal cosponsors, to actually suspend the TRIPS Agreement’s barriers to equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests,” the letter stated. “That proposal should be the starting point for negotiations at the WTO.”
The letter, released ahead of President Biden’s Global COVID Summit, comes a week after the WTO formally introduced the previously-leaked alternative text, which was widely condemned by public health and trade organizations as detrimental to global vaccination efforts. The letter urges the U.S., and other WTO members, to reject any proposal that does not: waive IP barriers; include tests and treatments; and increase eligibility to all countries. It also calls for the removal of new obstacles to vaccine and treatment access included in the alternative text.
“The WTO’s backwards COVID proposal not only fails to remove intellectual property barriers standing in the way of global access to vaccines, tests and treatments, it actually imposes new barriers,” said Arthur Stamoulis, executive director of the Trade Justice Education Fund. “Without strong U.S. leadership, huge numbers of people will continue to die needlessly each day for lack of access to COVID medicines and the world will remain vulnerable to new variants that could undo much of the progress made against the pandemic to date.”
Signers of the letter include Doctors Without Borders/MSF, Partners In Health, Oxfam America, Amnesty International USA, Human Rights Watch, Public Citizen, American Federation of Teachers, American Jewish World Service, Presbyterian Church USA, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Trade Justice Education Fund and many others.
“Unprecedented risks posed by an unprecedented global pandemic call for novel solutions, not ineffectual red herrings,” said Robbie Silverman, Oxfam America’s senior manager of private sector advocacy. “Despite President Biden’s declaration of support for the TRIPS Waiver for COVID-19 vaccines a year ago, not enough leadership followed. The US must help deliver a true intellectual property waiver as proposed by India and South Africa not only for vaccines but also for tests and treatments for all countries.”
“The world applauded President Biden a year ago when his administration announced support for a waiver of WTO intellectual property barriers to COVID vaccines,” said Melinda St. Louis, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. “It’s shameful that so far that promise has not translated into meaningful action at the WTO, while the pandemic continues to rage.”