The postponement of the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (OMC) this week virtually guarantees months of stagnation when it comes to fisheries subsidies and the attempt to expand vaccination against the COVID-19.
Expectations of progress were already low before the meeting, which was postponed on Friday after new travel restrictions imposed by Switzerland, due to the omicron variant, prevented many of the planned face-to-face meetings from taking place. No new date has been set.
The general director of the OMC, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said that the negotiations should not stop and that the delegations in Geneva should try to close as many outstanding issues as possible. “This new variant reminds us once again of the urgency of the work that we have entrusted to us,” he said.
Indeed, delegations went to work on Monday to debate a proposal by India and South Africa to waive intellectual property (IP) rights for vaccines and treatments of the COVID-19 and a counterproposal from the EU to use flexible measures included in the existing rules.
Doctors Without Borders said that the world cannot waste any more time, with millions of lives at stake.
“We call on countries that oppose this exemption and delay it to stop delaying tactics and take urgent action to adopt a full exemption,” the organization said.
The omicron discovery supports one of the arguments of the defenders of the exemption, according to which not supplying vaccines to the world increases the risk that dangerous variants of the coronavirus will emerge.
US President Joe Biden reiterated his belief in exemption from intellectual property protections for vaccines, saying the news of the new variant shows the importance of acting quickly.
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