US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he plans to back a World Trade Organisation (WTO) waiver for vaccine Intellectual Property (IP) and would talk about it later in the day.
“Yes, I’m going to talk about that later today, yes,” Biden told reporters in reply to a question about whether he intended to back the waiver after he gave a speech regarding his proposed “American Rescue Plan.”
The United States and several other countries have thus far blocked negotiations at the WTO about a proposal led by India and South Africa that would waive the IP rights of pharmaceutical companies to allow developing countries to produce COVID-19 vaccines.
Republicans urged Biden not to support waiver
Earlier, twelve Republican lawmakers wrote to Biden urging him not to support a proposal by South Africa and India to temporarily waive from Intellectual Property (IP) rules amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The two BRICS countries with the support of more than 90 others have since October last year sought to lead negotiations at the World Trade Organisation to waive certain IP rights in order to ramp up production and distribution of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics in order to save lives.
But richer countries led by the United States and Europe continue to argue that such a move would harm research and development.
In the letter to US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, the 12 Republican members of Congress led by Rep. Jim Jordan made their case for not allowing the waivers, calling it extraordinarily broad and unnecessary to accomplish wider access to COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.
“The justification for the waiver rests on an incorrect assumption that IP rights are a significant bottleneck to the widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. The waiver’s sponsors have presented no convincing evidence to support this assertion,” their letter reads.
-additional reporting by Sherwin Bryce-Pease
