In May, a revised proposal was submitted by 62 co-sponsors, including India, South Africa, and Indonesia. The TRIPS agreement came into effect in January 1995.
Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, on Tuesday, called for a waiver of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and said that new trade barriers should be dismantled to fight the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
India and South Africa, in October last year, had submitted the first proposal, suggesting a waiver for all WTO members on the implementation of several provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) in regard to the prevention, containment, or treatment of COVID-19 infection.
In May, a revised proposal was submitted by 62 co-sponsors, including India, South Africa, and Indonesia. The TRIPS agreement came into effect in January 1995.
Goyal in his address to the G20 Trade and Investment Ministerial Meeting in Naples, Italy said, “Our response to the pandemic needs to ensure equitable access to vaccines and other COVID-19 related health products by ensuring quick resolution of the supply-side constraints. One of the ways to demonstrate this is by accepting the TRIPS waiver proposal."
(With agency input)
