By David Lawder and Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – There has been no agreement on the terms of a COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property waiver among four key World Trade Organization members, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Wednesday, casting doubt over the effort’s future.
Tai told U.S. lawmakers that “there has been no agreement” related to a proposed IP waiver text that was leaked to media earlier this month.
She called the text the “concept” of a compromise coming from discussions facilitated by WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala between the United States, the European Union, India and South Africa.
Text of the proposed compromise seen by Reuters sought to waive IP rights to COVID-19 vaccines and supplies but it needed to be finalized and then presented to and accepted by the WTO’s 164 member countries.
Tai’s comments suggest that more work was needed to finalize the text amid some criticisms that the proposed compromise does not go far enough beyond a mandatory vaccine licensing regime.
She reassured members of the House Ways and Means Committee that the effort to increase vaccine access to developing countries aimed to preserve American intellectual property rights. The Biden administration first declared its support for an IP waiver for COVID-19 vaccines in May 2021.
Asked about the issue during a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee, Tai said, “On your question of whether or not we are working to give away American IP, no, we are not.”
Tai added that she hears “loud and clear” the concerns voiced by some lawmakers that any waiver of intellectual property rights at the World Trade Organization could benefit China, but also noted that ending the pandemic was critical to ensuring global economic growth.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and David Lawder; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
