The CCPA has joined hundreds of civil society organizations and individuals in urging WTO member governments to support a proposal from South Africa and India calling for the suspension of the implementation, application and enforcement of certain WTO TRIPS obligations (regarding patents, copyright, industrial design, and protection of undisclosed information) for the treatment, prevention and containment of COVID-19. This initiative would help facilitate a truly global, public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which the current WTO intellectual property rights regime impedes as explained in the resources below.
Despite enjoying widespread support from over 100 developing country member governments, no consensus could be reached at the December 10 meeting of the WTO TRIPS Council. Canada joined a handful of high-income countries led by the US and the EU in opposing the waiver. There will now be a status report given at the General Council meeting on Dec. 16-17. Talks on the issue will continue early in the new year.
COVID-19 waiver letter resources
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Open letter from International Development Studies department at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.
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Open letter from Ron Labonte, Professor and Distinguished Research Chair, Globalization and Health Equity at the University of Ottawa. (If you are a health professional and wish to add your signature, please contact: [email protected].)
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COVID-19 drug and vaccine patents are putting profit before people, Ronald Labonte and Mira Johri, Behind the Numbers.
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India and South Africa proposal for WTO waiver from IP protections for COVID-19-related medical technologies, Médecins Sans Frontières.
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WTO: A missed opportunity to put people before patents, Amnesty International.
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Trudeau's vaccine hypocrisy harmful to poorer countries, Gavin Fridell and Rylan Higgins, Halifax Chronicle Herald.
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Canada's opposition to a WTO proposal hurts developing countries' pandemic fight, Ronald Labonté and Mira Johri, Globe and Mail.
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Letter from NDP Trade Critic Daniel Blaikie to International Trade Minister Mary Ng urging the government to support the TRIPS waiver and institute a moratorium on investor-state disputes for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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WTO receives petition signed by 900,000 people who support the TRIPS waiver and demand that countries, companies and the WTO “ensure access to lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and equipment for everyone in the world."
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NUPGE joins call for waiver of intellectual property rights on COVID-19 medical products
- Canadian Labour Congress letter in support of the TRIPS waiver
- Letter to Ministers Ng and Bains from the HIV Legal Network, November 15, 2020