Press Release: Groups Say New Zealand Move at WTO "Undermines" People's Vaccine

Joint Media Release: New Zealand Alternative and It's Our Future

Thursday 11 March 2021

Groups Say New Zealand Move at WTO "Undermines" People's Vaccine

New Zealand Alternative and It's Our Future have criticised a WTO communication co-sponsored by NZ, Australia, Canada, and others for cutting across the proposal by South Africa and India to temporarily waive intellectual property rights on covid technologies, including vaccines.

The communication, circulated on 9 March 2021 and obtained by New Zealand Alternative and It's Our Future, affirms the need to scale up vaccine production, acknowledges that these are "exceptional times", and calls for the WTO to convene discussions with vaccine developers, vaccine manufacturers and the WHO.
It refers to encouraging "licensing partnerships", a reference to using "flexibilities" under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), rather than a patent waiver.


It also calls for promoting "broad availability" of other products, and mentions the need to address "trade-related impediments" in a "consensus-based manner". The patent waiver requires three-quarters support of WTO members, and may require a vote as opposed to a consensus decision.

"We are glad to see this acknowledgment that we are in 'exceptional times'," said Phoebe Carr, co-manager of New Zealand Alternative. "But if these are 'exceptional' times, New Zealand should support South Africa and India's call for a TRIPS waiver, which is permissible in 'exceptional circumstances'."

"The intervention undermines discussions about the patent waiver, which 88% of WTO member states support," said Edward Miller of It's Our Future. "We know that one of the solutions proposed in this communication, licensing, is too slow and legalistic to deliver the People's Vaccine that is needed."

"Ultimately it is states, not vaccine developers and manufacturers, who need to be leading to set aside legal barriers to fair vaccine access, such as patents on vaccine-related technology," said Phoebe Carr.

"New Zealand and the other co-sponsors of this communication risk being on the wrong side of history if they do not act now to support a patent waiver," added Edward Miller. "With the patent waiver endorsed, countries can step up efforts to transfer technology and share know-how with the Global South."

This week a brief produced by the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University found that the EU, US and UK make up only 10.8% of the global population but have given 50% of all vaccinations. In contrast, Africa makes up 17.2% of the world in population but has only been able to provide 1.5% of vaccinations.

It's Our Future and New Zealand Alternative, along with Oxfam NZ, coordinated a letter in January 2021 from 42 organisations and experts, including Dr Siousxie Wiles, calling on the New Zealand Government to back the patent waiver.

The WTO is currently midway through a TRIPS Council meeting held on 9-10 March (European time). New Zealand's co-sponsored communication was published in advance of that meeting.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

- The communication co-sponsored by New Zealand, circulated on 9 March, is below

ENHANCING THE ROLE OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION IN THE GLOBAL
effort Toward the production and distribution of COVID-19 VACCINES and other medical products

COMMUNICATION FROM AUSTRALIA, CANADA, CHILE, COLOMBIA, NEW ZEALAND,
NORWAY AND TURKEY

The following communication, dated 9 March 2021, is being circulated at the request of the delegations of Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, New Zealand, Norway and Turkey.


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  1. There is an urgent need to further enhance the international effort to promote the rapid, global and equitable distribution of affordable, safe and effective COVID-19-related medical products, and vaccines in particular, with a view to limiting the impact of the pandemic on people, economies and societies, and to help foster a rapid, inclusive, sustainable and resilient recovery. The co-sponsors of this communication believe that the scaling up of vaccine production must be a fundamental priority, as no one is safe until everyone is safe. The co-sponsors of this communication recognize the significant contributions of multilateral cooperation and innovative approaches such as the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator and the COVAX Facility, and believe that the WTO can similarly contribute to these global efforts in a complementary fashion.

  2. In these exceptional times that require a strong and purposeful multilateral response to end the pandemic, the co-sponsors of this communication believe that the WTO, as the global hub for trade, and particularly in a pandemic where the relevance of trade for lives and livelihoods has become even more evident, possesses considerable convening power. We further believe that the WTO should rapidly make use of its resources to the full extent to foster a prompt, pragmatic and tangible acceleration in the global response to COVID-19, and particularly the global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. We believe that the WTO, and particularly its Secretariat, can and should undertake this work in parallel to ongoing discussions among Members on the trade-related aspects of the COVID-19 response, and without prejudice to these discussions.

  3. The co-sponsors of this communication therefore earnestly encourage the Director-General to promptly convene and hold discussions with both vaccine developers and vaccine manufacturers, as well as developers and manufacturers of other COVID-19-related medical products, in coordination with the World Health Organization and other relevant organizations, toward:

  • helping to ensure that any unused or underutilized capacity for the production of affordable, safe and effective vaccines, at any stage in the process, is promptly identified and used as fully as it is technically possible, with a view to a net increase in global production of COVID-19 vaccines, and provided that this is not to the detriment of the production of other essential vaccines;

  • promptly facilitating and promoting the creation of mutually beneficial licensing partnerships between vaccine developers and vaccine manufacturers, including for the collaborative and prompt transfer of expertise, know-how and technology;

  • promptly identifying and addressing, in a consensus-based manner, any trade-related impediments to the utilization of production capacity and the scaling up of vaccine production, as well as to the production and distribution of other COVID-19-related medical products, recalling the right of WTO Members to use, to the full, the provisions in the TRIPS Agreement, which provide flexibility to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all; and

  • promoting, through similar approaches, the broad availability of other essential COVID-19-related medical products, such as diagnostics, therapeutics, equipment and devices.

  1. The co-sponsors of this communication further encourage the Director-General to provide Members with regular updates, as appropriate, on any such discussions.


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- The Global Development Policy Center's brief is online here (which explains why licensing is a burdensome solution): https://www.bu.edu/gdp/files/2021/03/GEGI_PB_013_Vaccinating_the_World.pdf

- The open letter signed in January is here: https://www.oxfam.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Peoples-Vaccine-Open-Letter.pdf

- The Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the WTO sets out in Article IX(3) that in "exceptional circumstances" an obligation under agreements such as TRIPS can be waived through a decision of three-quarters of members.

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Thomas Nash