WTO Director-General Says Formal Vaccine IP Waiver Talks 'Stuck,' but Deal Within Reach

World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that formal negotiations over issuing an intellectual property waiver for COVID-19 vaccines are "stuck," but that compromise stands within reach. Speaking at an event hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, she said that balancing the concerns of less developed nations that seek greater vaccine access and developed countries that seek to protect the incentives and rewards of innovation of the vaccines is "practical" and eminently possible. Okonjo-Iweala also hinted that informal talks are ramping up toward finding a solution to the waiver issue, known as the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS, waiver.

Okonjo-Iweala's answer on the waiver came amid a larger pitch on how the WTO can be used on pandemic-related issues. She cited a host of efforts undertaken by the WTO over the last year and a half to ensure that the trade-related issues of the pandemic found proper solutions. For instance, Okonjo-Iweala discussed the secretarial staff at the WTO who reached out to vaccine manufacturers to work around supply chain bottlenecks and identify where to invest in emerging markets to increase resilience of vaccine manufacturing.

Throughout the event, Okonjo-Iweala also kept referencing one event that she views as fundamental to injecting confidence into the multilateral body and achieving real solutions for the globe's economies: the 12th ministerial conference set to kick off at the end of November. The talk at the ministerial will be a potential resolution on a nagging fishery subsidies dispute that WTO member states will look to achieve while there. Okonjo-Iweala discussed the worrying trend of overfishing and a need for a fishery subsidy solution to protect the biodiversity of the oceans.

Published alongside the event was a report from economists, four at PIIE and one at the Council on Foreign Relations, titled "Making the most of the 2021 ministerial: What the United States should do." The four sections of the report look into how the ministerial can be used to restore U.S. leadership at the WTO, establish a COVID-19 vaccine investment and trade agreement, set the WTO agenda on trade and climate, and revise the body's dispute settlement system.