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June 21, 2021

Summary: Revised Decision Text – Waiver from Certain Provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the Prevention, Containment and Treatment of Covid-19 (WTO)

Author: Intern - Sirisha Prasad

The delegations of the African Group, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Egypt, Eswatini, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Kenya, the LDC Group, Maldives, Mozambique, Mongolia, Namibia, Pakistan, South Africa, Vanuatu, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Zimbabwe;      co-sponsors for the Joint Proposal made by India and South Africa to waive certain provisons of the TRIPS Agreement for the‘prevention, containment and treatment of covid-19’, on May 21st 2021, submitted a revised decision text for consideration by the council of Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights [TRIPS].

The revised decision text has been made taking to account all the discussions and feedback received on the draft decision text by the member countries and the growing concerns of continuous mutations and unknown variations in the SARS-COV-2. To reflect these changes, the co-sponsors revised the preamble of the draft proposal to emphasize on the unpredictable nature of the virus mutations and highlight the uncertainties and complexities in controlling the same.

Further, addressing the concern of the member countries that the original text is too broad in its ambit and many intellectual property issues may arise, the revised text amends the operative paragraph (1) of the draft decision text, to stress that the waiver proposed in limited in scope to the prevention, containment or treatment of COVID-19. It makes the original draft narrow by focusing the text on health products and technologies like vaccines, diagnostics etc. and their methods and means of manufacture, which are necessary to counter the global pandemic situation.

The revised decision text also alters the time duration for which the waiver was proposed in the original text. It limits the duration of time for which the waiver would be in force i.e. from the waiver being in force for an indeterminate period with a provision for annual review by the General Council to 3 years from the date on which decision is taken with regards to the waiver of the TRIPS provisions. The revised decision text added that after 3 years of such waiver, the General Council shall review the situation and either justify the extension of the waiver, in case of exceptional circumstances or determine the date of termination of the waiver if any such circumstances ceases to exist. This amendment was made considering the opinion that the duration should be practical in order to make manufacturing of vaccines and technologies feasible and to address the uncertainties faced by the international community while dealing with a novel pathogen.

The text can be accessed here – https://docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/SS/directdoc.aspx?filename=q:/IP/C/W669R1.pdf&Open=True

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