Battered WTO on the verge of 'dead end' heading into final day of talks

India reiterated Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal's view that any WTO vaccine agreement must also waive IP rights for Covid-19 diagnostic tests and therapeutic drugs, according to the readout

A global bid to deliver a package of World Trade Organization agreements on issues ranging from food security to tariff-free digital commerce headed into an extended session with hopes fading that a final push for compromise will yield 11th-hour breakthroughs.
 

On the final full day of the WTO’s 12th ministerial conference in Geneva, officials from the world’s largest economies were only a few words away from an agreement to waive intellectual-property rights for Covid-19 vaccines. But India remained a key holdout in negotiations expected to end by mid-afternoon on Thursday. 

The future success of a trade body that has not concluded