Thread by @CoppetainPU

The General Council (= all @wto members) meets on Tuesday and Wednesday, the last time before the summer break.

It is the top decision-making body below the (in normal times) biennial Ministerial Conference.

Some juicy items on the draft agenda: docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/S…

1/10

Among items attracting attention, eg:

Item 4—Proposed #TRIPSwaiver on some intellectual property protection for #COVID19—status report & request for a decision to extend the discussion in the intellectual property (TRIPS) council.

See draft here: tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2021/05/25/wto…

2/10

Extending discussion of the #TRIPSwaiver should be a formality. Already agreed in lengthy debate in the TRIPS Council.

But in the past, members needed to underscore their positions politically by repeating their arguments in the General Council

3/10 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2021/03/05/dir…

More ⬇️ on the draft text of the #TRIPSwaiver for #COVID19—the text, the discussion in the TRIPS Council (also comprising all @wto members), and why a General Council decision is needed:

4/10 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2021/05/25/wto…

Those unfamiliar with WTO #waivers can observe that four others are on the agenda—item 18

Note: least-developed countries will not have to protect intellectual property for pharmaceutical products until 2033 (they can but don’t have to)

Mea cupla…

5/10 docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/S…

Mea culpa—I had thought the least-developed country decision was simply about extending a transition period (that’s what the TRIPS Council decision was called), not an Art.9 “waiver”. I was wrong. Apologies if you saw that tweet.

6/10 docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/S…

Items 7 and 8—on responses to #COVID19, including an EU🇪🇺 paper.

To find the papers listed, search WTO documents online at docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/F…, paste or type the document number (eg WT/GC/W/823) into the “document symbol” field.

7/10 docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/S…

Item 14—“The legal status of ‘joint statement initiatives’ and their negotiated outcomes”

A repeat outing for a paper by India & South Africa criticising “plurilateral” negotiations in subsets of the WTO membership, when no “multilateral” consensus

8/10 docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/S…

The #plurilateral talks/“joint statement initiatives” India and S-Africa challenge—seen as the only way to get negotiations going in the WTO—eg:

• digital trade
• services regulation
• investment facilitation
• MSMEs
• trade & gender

See⬇️

9/10 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2021/02/22/ind…

Item 17—African Group paper ⬇️ on strengthening the “multilateral character” of the WTO.

No mention of #plurilateral initiatives. But the emphasis on “multilateral” and consensus decision-making suggests that might be a target.

Decide for yourself

10/10 docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/S…