Prognosis
WTO Touts Progress in Covid Vaccine Waiver Talks But No Agreement Yet
- U.S., EU, India, South Africa compromise may waive IP rules
- USTR spokesman: ‘No agreement on text has been reached’
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Talks aimed at waiving intellectual-property rules for Covid-19 vaccines reached a potential breakthrough as the U.S., EU, India and South Africa advanced a compromise outcome to circumvent certain World Trade Organization rules for vaccine production.
“This is a major step forward and this compromise is the result of many long and difficult hours of negotiations,” WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in a statement on Wednesday. “But we are not there yet.”