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Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Oct21/17) At the beginning of the pandemic, many global leaders and in particular EU leaders promised equitable access i.e. that vaccines, treatments etc will be considered as “global public goods”, underscoring that international solidarity and cooperation is key to combating the pandemic. However, these promises remain unfulfilled. Instead, the disparity in access to vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and other medical tools between high-income countries and the rest of the world is staggering. The official COVID-19 death toll is 4.9 million deaths. But the Economist predicts that the actual toll is likely to be approximately 15.9 million people with the pandemic increasingly affecting developing countries. Delayed vaccination and limited access to diagnostics and therapeutics are forecasted to massively increase infections and with that the spread of variants and mutations and a rise in the number of deaths. The economic impacts of are also expected to be devastating for developing countries. (https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/9/15/as-rich-poor-divide-widens-between-nations-un-urges) Equitable access i.e. timely availability and affordability of COVID-19 medical products especially vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics are essential. This requires production to be diversified and for developing country manufacturers to be engaged in the supply of these products. Towards this end, India and South Africa with the support of the majority of the WTO Members have called on the WTO to waive certain obligations (patents, trade secrets, copyright and industrial designs) contained in the WTO-TRIPS Agreement to contain COVID-19. This TRIPS waiver proposal is being blocked in the WTO by a few developed countries especially the EU, UK, Switzerland, Norway that support the status quo so that Big Pharma can maximise profits at the expense of lives and livelihoods in developing countries. We
share with you a short 3 min video on Europe’s Broken Promises on
Equitable Access: Watch and Share the video and Help us amplify the message on social media by retweeting the video: https://twitter.com/3rdworldnetwork/status/1448245363882659845 The video is also available on (pls share widely) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/3rdworldnetwork/posts/4532472510128938 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6854063238469046272 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CU-S1LXpKFf/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
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