 "Vaccine production")
After obtaining a five-year patent waiver for Covid-19 vaccines in 2022, India is likely to push for a global waiver for vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics to combat future pandemics at the mini-ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Paris on June 7, a report by Economic Times (ET) said.
India, South Africa, and 80 other WTO members had proposed a response for future pandemics, but the ministerial outcome of 2022 only covered Covid-19 vaccines, with the US delaying an outcome on therapeutics and diagnostics, it added.
Meanwhile, an official told ET that the country will advocate for flexibility for future pandemics.
In the event of future pandemics, an omnibus waiver will enable a quick response and prevent drawn-out negotiations, he said.
The mini-ministerial meet, being held on the sidelines of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) meeting, will lay out the agenda for the 13th Ministerial Conference of the WTO the next year.
At the meeting, discussions around a moratorium on levying customs duties on e-transmissions are also expected. India and South Africa have sought for a review and re-examination of the moratorium on e-commerce transmissions that has continued for 24-years.
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According to estimates from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, developing countries could lose $10 billion in annual tariff revenue due to the moratorium on e-transmissions as compared to only $289 million for high-income countries.
Separately, 80 nations, including India and China, have called for the WTO to start text-based negotiations to find a long-term solution on public stockholding (PSH) for food security at the ministerial-level meeting of the global trade body in February of next year.
This comes in response to demands from developing nations and the African Group for a food security package at the 2024 conference.
While India's good subsidies are shielded from WTO member action by a peace clause that protects its food procurement policies in the event that the subsidy ceilings—10 per cent of the value of food production in the case of India and other developing countries—are breached, developing countries have been pushing for a long-term resolution to the problem.
"There are talks that the food security package should be at the heart of the MC13 outcome. However, there are differing opinions on the package's contents, the outcome's scope, and the level of ambition," said another official.
Officials further said that the Centre is in discussions with the coastal states to accept the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, which was a component of the outcome package at the ministerial conference last year.
Talks on fisheries subsidies are also likely to take place at the mini-ministerial next month, the official added.
