A formal meeting of the WTO intellectual property (TRIPS) council this afternoon heard reports from an attempt by four members (EU, India, SAfrica, US) to break the deadlock over waiving the obligation to protect some intellectual property for COVID-19 (the #TRIPSwaiver)

1/10
WTO deputy head @_AnabelG who is coordinating (with DG @NOIweala) with the group of 4 said the talks have been difficult but she hoped a compromise could be possible.

One approach explored is to separate vaccines from diagnostics and therapeutics. (Why? Explained in 9/10)

2/10
The EU—said it was looking for a bridge between waiver-advocates and its own position to make flexibilities in WTO rules as easy to use.

The US—repeated its broad support for the waiver (but so far with no specifics), and that it is working with members to find a solution

3/10
SAfrica—agreed that small group consultations have been useful, and said delay in approving the waiver is hampering efforts to diversify production. Refers to mRNA hub (more below)

India—said it has engaged constructively and remains committed to finding a solution.

4/10
Others—generally appreciated the efforts and asked to be kept informed

Switzerland—criticised the talks among the 4, for failing to be inclusive, transparent with regular reporting to members

(Note this is similar to India and SAfrica objections to plurilaterals!)

5/10
UK—similar to Switzerland: any outcome has to be agreed by consensus among the full membership.

Council chair Ambassador Dagfinn Sørli of Norway also reported on his consultations on Feb 9.

6/10
The main business today was to agree a report to the General Council (meeting tomorrow and Thursday), accompanying a request to extend the discussion another 90 days.

This is needed under WTO rules on waivers, Article 9.3 of the WTO Agreement

7/10 wto.org/english/docs_e… Image
The next full-agenda intellectual property council meeting is Mar 9–10

See also this thread

8/10
NEW: Why are WTO members deadlocked over the proposed waiver? What are they saying?

It's not just whether to accept or reject the waiver. If only it were that simple.

Compiled from minutes and accounts from officials.

9/10 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2022/02/22/8-r…
ALSO NEW: WHO’s African ‘hub-and-spokes’ vaccine technology set-up, from news that broke late last week.

Added to the mRNA research and development hub in Cape Town are production spokes in Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia

10/10 tradebetablog.wordpress.com/who-african-hu…

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More from @CoppetainPU

Feb 24
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was raised on Day 2 of the WTO General Council today

A number of countries prefaced their statements under various agenda items by expressing concern about violation of sovereignty, territoriality and the rule of law

1/4
WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said they included Australia, Canada, Colombia, EU, Georgia, Japan, Rep. Korea, Mexico, Norway, New Zealand, UK, US

Russia said the WTO was not the place to discuss this

2/4 docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/S… Image
On the deadlocked #TRIPSWaiver⬇️, more countries expressed concern about the attempt to break the deadlock among 4 key players: India, EU, SAfrica and US—mainly a complaint that they were not being informed about what was happening in the small group.

3/4
Read 4 tweets
Feb 22
Proposed rescheduled in-person WTO Ministerial Conference—June 2–4 or week of June 13, Geneva.

General Council chair Dacio Castillo the earliest feasible dates taking account of availability of Swiss security and other facilities.

1/6 wto.org/english/thewto…
Based on what he heard informally today, Castillo will consult members and report to the formal General Council tomorrow & Thursday.

Most delegations preferred the week of Jun 13, some preferred Jun 2–4, but most said they were flexible, according to a Geneva trade official

2/6
The new dates are possible because Switzerland eased most of its COVID-19 restrictions on Feb 17. The Swiss ambassador told the meeting that most restrictions on entry would be lifted. Any remaining curbs will be waived for the Ministerial Conference.

3/6 swissinfo.ch/eng/covid-19_c…
Read 7 tweets
Feb 14
Very niche🧵

Who invented the 4 modes of services supply?

I took a deep dive into historical Uruguay Round negotiating documents following contributions from @ScheeleJonathan @AmyPorges @henrysgao @RMelendezOrtiz

Short answer: it was an evolution, crystallised by the EU

1/14
The four modes of services supply are:

1 cross border supply
2 consumption abroad
3 foreign commercial presence
4 movement or presence of natural persons

Within the 1986–94 Uruguay Round negotiations, this evolved from Feb 1987 to Oct 1989

2/14 wto.org/english/tratop… Image
Feb 23–25, 1987 meetings

The earliest reference to this idea is in summary note MTN.GNS/7
docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/S…

This has (1) cross-border supply, (2) (partial) presence of natural persons, (3) commercial presence.

Not consumption abroad

3/14 Image
Read 17 tweets
Feb 10
This is an interesting WTO staff working paper by Ting-Wei (Alex) Chiang and Xiaoping Wu of the Intellectual Property Division

It's complicated, but that's the nature of #COVID19 vaccines and vaccine patents

Direct link to the paper: wto.org/english/res_e/…

Some takeaways

1/6
The paper looks at the different types of vaccine technology and their "patent families" (patent applications for the same or similar technical content), evolution, distribution of inventions and patents globally, types of companies involved, and more

2/6 wto.org/english/res_e/…
• Vaccine types vary in the number of patent families involved. Viral vector (AstraZeneca etc) and mRNA (Pfizer, Moderna, etc) have more

• Private firms dominate, SMEs contributing most, public labs do basic science research

• Earlier years count

3/6 wto.org/english/res_e/…
Read 6 tweets
Feb 3
The 🇪🇺 Commission says this is the first Sri Lankan 🇱🇰 geographical indication to be registered in the EU.

For those of us with long memories, it's more than that.

Back in 2005-2006 Sri Lanka complained its exports to the EU were blocked.

Details: spsims.wto.org/en/SpecificTra…

1/3
Sri Lanka raised this in the WTO committee on food safety and animal/plant health (SPS) in 2005–2006.

🇱🇰 complained that EU rules on sulphur dioxide were inconsistent ⬇️, preventing imports of its cinnamon.

The EU and @FAOWHOCodex were sympathetic.

2/3 wto.org/english/news_e… Image
By late 2006, the issue was resolved.

15 years later Sri Lanka has a protected geographical indication for its cinnamon in the EU

WTO processes may be slow, but sometimes they produce results.

3/3 wto.org/english/news_e… Image
Read 4 tweets

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