India-South Africa IPR waiver proposal

Subject: Economy

Context: Around 90 WTO members have supported India-South Africa IPR proposal for temporary waiver during Covid 19 period.

Concept:

At the recent TRIPS Council meeting these members supported the proposal which has 57 co-sponsors.
It says that the member countries canchoose to neither grant nor enforce patents and other intellectual property- (IP) related to Covid-19 drugs, vaccines and medical products for the duration of the pandemic.
The co-sponsors of the India-South Africa proposal include Kenya, Eswatini, Mozambique, Pakistan and Bolivia.
Significance of this support is that proposal will not be set aside and that more efforts are made to move towards a consensus on the matter
It was also supported by ACP group, one of the largest groups on forum.
Several developed countries and China, Colombia and Chile, however, continue to oppose it, and sought more evidence-based discussion.
However skewed access to vaccine is evident: As per the data, the US, the UK and the EU accounted for about 30 per cent of over 200 million vaccines that have been administered globally. It has been reported that just 10 countries have administered 75 per cent of all Covid-19 vaccines while over 100 countries have not received a single dose.

About ACP Group

ACP Group (African, Caribbean and Pacific Group – 62 members) was created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975 and now known as Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS).
Aim of the group is sustainable development and poverty reduction within its member states, as well as their greater integration into the world’s economy.
Many small island developing states are OACPS states. The fourth Lomé Convention was revised in 1995 in Mauritius and gives special attention to island countries in this agreement.

About Trips

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