Vaccine Passports Work against Countries having No Access to Covid Shots: WTO Chief

WTO Chief, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who's visiting India, said that vaccine passports area double whammy or double victimisation for countries that do not have access to vaccines.

Speaking to TOI, she said that the WTO is "against using vaccine passports as barriers to movement or any kind of barrier to trade".

She thanked India for lifting of exports prohibitions on vaccines.

"Most of what was being held back was AstraZeneca products from Serum Institute, which were destined for the African continent. Now that they have lifted the prohibition, those will be delivered to Covax. I was one of the people designing Covax," she told.

She also hoped to reach an agreement where developing countries get easier access to vaccines.

The WTO has not been able to reach an agreement among its members to suspend intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines.

India and South Africa have pushed for lifting of intellectual property rights for Covid shots in order to address the issue of vaccine access.

Global pharma giants have pushed back against this proposal.

The 12th ministerial round will take place from November 30 to December 3 in Geneva.