It is imperative to dial up the COVAX access for all. For that change has to be brought in both bilateral and producer levels.
One of the important priorities that have to be fulfilled in 2022 global trade is managing the pandemic. The responsibility for doing that lies in the hands of the WTO, and their priority should be on distributing vaccines to various parts of the world.
As of now, WTO has not done enough to facilitate its role in vaccines distribution. The total number of vaccines exported till December 31, 2021, was 71%. It moved through various bilateral supply deals.
The remaining trade of vaccines was exported through COVAX, who procured it through donations or by contracts. But the quality of such supplied vaccines is questioned, which made many nations reject them.
This will lead to vaccine inequality. That can be avoided by managing it. The importing countries are working out supply arrangements with vaccine producers in pre-agreed terms for sale and delivery. That is not a free flow of vaccines that should occur.
The reason behind this state of affairs is because pre-determination of vaccine prices. The producers negotiate pre-determined prices with the buyers based on their requirements and ability to pay. As a result, such deals resemble forward contracts.
WTO has tried to free vaccine trade from this system and make it move freely. But that hasn’t happened to date, even under the threat of Omicron. This shows that the producers can dictate prices and terms of sale.
But as the numbers of vaccines increase along with the global supply of vaccines, the individual producers will lose their pricing authority. But to further it, the WTO has to determine the decision on not letting intellectual property be a roadblock.
WTO cannot do it alone and a multilateral consensus is needed. Recently India has asked for a virtual Ministerial meeting to work out WTO’s pandemic response, focusing on wavering intellectual property rules over vaccines and Covid medicines.
There hasn’t been any movement in that direction, with meetings being postponed. The Ministerial Conference is important, when it comes to the issue of vaccines and the pandemic difficulties are not an excuse in avoiding the issue.
The issue should be resolved through any method available for WTO. Such discussion will be held in major global groupings like the G7 and G20, even within FTAs too.
Other than the vaccine issue, another important topic to focus on is climate action goals. This is especially important after the COP26 summit. This will be the focus of FTA meetings, especially that of India.
For the foreseeable future, the focus of WTO will be on public health and sustainable development.
The pandemic has reinforced this and made them more accountable in delivering these. This is a good time to save their face from the past discriminatory policies.
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