India Calls for Patent Waiver for Vax, Medicines at WTO at Mini Ministerial Meet

ABS News Service/22.01.2022

India on Friday called for patent waiver for vaccines, drugs and devices at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and warned that countries, especially the developed world, should not use the pandemic as a “veil to secure market access” in developing countries.

“A robust WTO response to Covid-19 and pandemic preparedness must necessarily show deference to the views of large number of WTO members…A successful resolution of the TRIPS Waiver must, therefore, be at the core of the WTO response to the pandemic. The TRIPS Waiver proposal by India, South Africa, supported by more than 100 other developing countries, provides a useful way forward to confront some critical health-related aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic effectively. This is both a health and a moral imperative for all of us collectively,” commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal told mini-ministerial meeting.

He cautioned that developing countries should not be asked to vacate their trade policy space.