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Waive IPR for equitable Covid vaccine access: India at G20
Goyal invited G20 countries to join in efforts to make health services accessible and more affordable for the citizens of the world by enabling free flow of health services in a world grappling with coronavirus
Developed countries need to waive intellectual property rights to ensure equitable access to Covid-related medicines by poorer nations, commerce minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday. He also asked the G20 nations to dismantle new trade barriers, such as vaccine differentiation and Covid-19 passports, to ensure delivery of critical services.
Goyal’s comments were in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s June 12 statement at the G7 Summit that urged the developed nations to support India and South Africa’s proposal for a TRIPS waiver on Covid-19 related technologies. TRIPS is short for trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights.
“Our response to the pandemic needs to ensure equitable access to vaccines and other Covid-19 related health products by ensuring quick resolution of the supply side constraints,” Goyal said at the G20 Trade and Investment Ministerial meeting in Italy. “One of the ways to demonstrate this is by accepting the TRIPS waiver proposal.”
Goyal is India’s Sherpa for the G20, a grouping of 19 major economies and the European Union. Its members account for 80% of global gross domestic product, 75% of global trade and 60% of global population. The next G20 Leaders’ Summit is scheduled on October 30-31 under Italy’s presidency. India, which is a member of the group since its inception in 1999, will be holding the G20 presidency from December 1, 2022, and will convene the G20 Leaders’ Summit in 2023 for the first time.
“We need to actively resolve new trade barriers like vaccine differentiation or Covid passports, which impose mobility restrictions and impede the movement of personnel needed for delivering critical services,” Goyal said at the meeting.
The G20 Trade and Investment Ministerial Meeting is important precursor of the World Trade Organization’s 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12), as it is a “springboard for a successful outcome”, according to the official G20 Italy website. MC12 is scheduled to take place in Geneva from 30 November to 3 December 2021.
The proposal to waive TRIPS was advanced jointly by India and South Africa last year to ensure access to technologies needed to prevent, contain or treat Covid-19.
“The Covid-19 crisis is a powerful reminder of our interconnectedness, and the need for a coordinated global strategy to overcome such an unprecedented public health situation,” Goyal said, underlining the need for an early universal vaccination against Covid-19.
“Apart from focusing on facilitating free flow of goods, I invite G20 countries to join in efforts to make health services accessible and more affordable for the citizens of the world by enabling free flow of health services,” he said. “As a quick response to the pandemic, I am happy to inform that our telemedicine initiative, eSanjeevani, has been serving millions of Indians. I am happy to offer it to the entire world.”
Among other issues, Goyal called for an equitable and balanced outcome to trade negotiations in the fisheries sector, advocating that countries engaged in distant water fishing should stop subsidising fishing in high seas and gradually reduce their fishing capacities, particularly for overfished stocks.
Goyal also discussed the agreement on joint multilateral positions in fisheries with his Australian counterpart during a one-on-one meeting on Monday .
India was committed towards the United Nations 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Goyal said in his address, asking the developed nations to keep their end of the bargain.
“India is among the few countries which is on track to exceed its commitments as per the Paris Agreement. We urge the members to fulfil their commitments regarding transfer of technology and climate finance, which are far from being fulfilled by the developed countries,” he said.
Goyal said sustainability has to be linked to making available grant-based, long tenure, low cost and concessional and affordable technologies.
“India has consistently maintained that environmental, sustainability measures need careful assessment to ensure they do not become new trade barriers and the right forum for them is the dedicated Multilateral Environmental Agreements,” he said.
On the sidelines of the G20 Trade Ministers Meeting at Sorrento in Italy, Goyal advanced India’s trade position and negotiated bilateral and multilateral agreements in his meetings with nearly 15 ministers, including from the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Brazil, China, Australia, South Africa, Indonesia, Canada, South Korea and Mexico. He also met the director general of the World Trade Organisation.
Goyal made it clear that India was working towards the success of the upcoming WTO 12th Ministerial Conference (WTO MC12) next month, but it expected the outcome to be just and equitable. “Historical wrongs against developing countries must be corrected rather than being carried over,” said a commerce ministry statement, quoting Goyal.
In his meetings with the Canadian minister, Goyal discussed steps to take forward the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with the newly elected government while calling upon his South Korean and EU counterparts to accelerate review of the FTA. With the Mexican minister, Goyal discussed cooperation in healthcare.
