TRIPS waiver, developing nations' policy space key, India tells WTO

India on Friday insisted on the inclusion of waiver of certain provisions of the global intellectual property rights agreement for Covid-19 medicines and products in the World Trade Organization's pandemic response package, and cautioned against attempts at using the pandemic as a veil for securing market access concessions from developing countries.

At the virtual informal World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting organized by Switzerland, New Delhi said that the topmost priority should be to address the supply-side constraints, including IP barriers to augment the manufacturing of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, essential for treatment, prevention and control of the ongoing pandemic.

India and South Africa, supported by 100 other developing countries, want waiver of certain provisions of copyrights, industrial designs, patents and protection of undisclosed information in the Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement for prevention, containment or treatment of Covid-19.


India wants the waiver proposal to be part of the WTO package in response to the pandemic. The European Union has been opposing the proposal.

As per official sources, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal stated that a successful resolution of the TRIPS Waiver must be at the core of the WTO response to the pandemic as it provides a useful way forward to confront some of its critical health-related aspects effectively.

"This is both a health and a moral imperative for all of us collectively," India told the multilateral trade watchdog while reiterating that any future outcome should not require developing countries to relinquish their existing trade policy space.

Fish, farm talks
On the ongoing fisheries negotiations, India said that it is essential that big subsidizers take greater responsibility to reduce their subsidies. "We cannot repeat the Uruguay Round Mistakes in Agriculture, which institutionalized poverty, leading to broken trust," India said.

The WTO members are negotiating disciplines to eliminate subsidies for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing.

India said it is committed to concluding the negotiations but they must result in a fair and just agreement that balances current and future fishing needs, preserves space for equitable growth in fishing capacities in future and an effective special and differential treatment (S&DT) without any imbalances.

On agriculture, sources said that though New Delhi is keen on positive outcomes on mandated issues, including on Public Stockholding, cotton and special safeguard mechanism (SSM) to protect poor farmers from import surges, it would not agree to any attempt at shifting the burden of reforms in domestic support on the developing countries.