Now that US President Joe Biden has backed a proposed waiver for COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property rights, the next step is for the World Trade Organization to hammer out a deal – a process that could take months.
Not only are the negotiations expected to be lengthy, they are also likely to result in a waiver that is significantly narrower in scope and shorter in duration than the one initially proposed by India and South Africa, trade experts said.
Prior to Biden’s announcement, the two countries confirmed their intention to draft a new proposal at a WTO General Council meeting on Wednesday, prompting the body’s new Director General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to express hope for ”a pragmatic solution.”
Ten meetings in seven months have failed to move WTO members toward consensus on the original waiver proposal
”At a minimum, it’s going to be a month or two,” Clete Willems, a former Trump White House trade official who previously worked at the U.S. trade mission to the…