DOHA DECLARATION TRIPS

  • November 20, 2020
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN Topics
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Subject : International Relations

Context : Global public health voices have urged members of the World Trade Organisation to keep the spirit of Doha Declaration.

The proposal called for a waiver of certain intellectual property provisions during the pandemic on medical products developed to tackle Covid-19.

Concept :

  • The IP waiver would allow all countries to choose to neither grant nor enforce patents and other IP-related to Covid-19 drugs, vaccines, diagnostics and other technologies for the duration of the pandemic, until global herd immunity is achieved,” said by MSF( Doctors without Borders).
  • In 2001, at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health had affirmed governments’ rights to take all necessary measures to eliminate patents and other IP barriers, in the interest of public health, they pointed out.
  • At the last WTO meeting of the TRIPS Council in mid-October, Kenya and Eswatini joined India and South Africa in officially co-sponsoring the waiver.
  • Opposing the waiver are countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Norway, Switzerland and the European Union.

Doha Declaration

  • Doha Declaration had recognised the gravity of public health issues in developing and least-developed countries and reiterated the rights of WTO member states to make use of the flexibilities in the TRIPS Agreement to promote access to medicines for all.

TRIPS Council :

  • It monitors implementation of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Agreement).
  • It provides a forum in which WTO Members can consult on intellectual property matters, and carries out the specific responsibilities assigned to the Council in the TRIPS Agreement.

TRIPS Agreement:

  • sets the minimum standards of protection for copyrights and related rights, trademarks, geographical indications (GIs), industrial designs, patents, integrated circuit layout designs, and undisclosed information.
  • establishes minimum standards for the enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRs) through civil actions for infringement, actions at the border,
  • and at least in regard to copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting, in criminal actions.
DOHA DECLARATION TRIPS International Relations