News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Thursday, May 19, 2022
China has enhanced the prospects of an agreement at next month’s WTO ministerial meeting on a TRIPS waiver for COVID-19 vaccines, by stating that it will not be making use of any flexibilities offered to developing countries on access to patented medicines.
WTO members had the opportunity to give their first detailed response to the ‘outcome document’ on waiving intellectual property rights for COVID vaccines at a meeting of the TRIPS Council in Geneva on Friday (6 May). Their response? An agreement to keep on talking.
Hopes of meaningful agreement on key issues at the upcoming World Trade Organization ministerial conference in Geneva in June have been dealt a serious blow by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, said the organisation’s director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
The General Council of the WTO met informally today to take stock of a range of issues, but most importantly to try to nail down a definitive date for the next ministerial conference – also known at MC12.
The European Union, the United States, India, and South Africa last night reached a compromise on a waiver for developing countries from the World Trade Organization TRIPS agreement for COVID-19 related vaccines. The deal de facto excludes China from its benefits.
WTO negotiators seeking to advance the various dossiers under discussions at the Organization’s 12th ministerial conference – MC12 – now at least have the benefit of a firm deadline for reaching agreement. The most concrete decision taken at this week’s meeting of the WTO’s General Council was an agreement to …
The World Trade Organization’s 12 th ministerial conference is to be held in Geneva in the week of 13 June 2022, its secretariat announced on Wednesday (23 February). Rescheduled dates for the twice-postponed MC12 were formally approved by WTO ambassadors at this week’s meeting of the organisation’s General Council. Precise …
WTO ambassadors will this week decide to hold the Organization’s rescheduled twelfth ministerial conference – MC12 – in either the first or third week of June, a Geneva trade official said on Tuesday (22 February).
Here some key take-aways from today’s informal ‘FAC Trade’ held over the last two days in Marseille.
World Trade Organization delegations have decided that it is “premature” at present to set a revised date for the institution’s 12th ministerial conference, which had been due to take place towards the end of last year.
