H.E. Ambassador Dagfinn Sørli (Norway)

Switzerland

3 IP MEASURES IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19

52.   My delegation would like to thank the Secretariat for the presentation and for its very informative up-date on data concerning developments of COVID-19 vaccines production and manufacturing partnerships, among others. This is highly relevant information for our discussion in the Council under agenda items 13 and 14. The exponential growth both in production of COVID-19 vaccines doses and of the number of manufacturing partnerships around the globe since the beginning of the outbreak of the pandemic are encouraging.

The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to this item at its next meeting.

14. The Chair recalled that this agenda item had been discussed in the Council since its informal open-ended meeting in June 2020 and had been on the Council's agenda at its formal meetings since then. In light of broad support – in principle – for a continuation of these exchanges at the Council's last meetings, the item was on the agenda to facilitate exchange of views on measures undertaken as the pandemic persists.
15. He referred to the compilation "COVID-19: Measures Regarding Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights" that was available from the WTO website, which contained a non-exhaustive list of IP-related measures taken in the context of COVID-19, compiled by the Secretariat from official sources and verified by the Members concerned. This list was updated continuously, even if the rate at which new measures are brought to the attention of the Secretariat was slowing down. He thanked those Members that had informed the Secretariat of measures that should be included in this list, as well as any update or information on the expiry – or end of application – of such measures, and encouraged others to do the same.
16. The Chair recalled that in earlier meetings of the Council and at the General Council, a number of Members had asked the Secretariat to provide and compile data on the number of voluntary license agreements regarding COVID-19 vaccine production over time, and on the projected and observed volume of vaccine dose production under these agreements. At the Council's June 2021 meeting, the Secretariat had presented an initial set of data from different sources under this agenda item. The Chair invited the Secretariat to provide an update on the data compilation.
17. The Secretariat took the floor to present document RD/IP/45.
18. The representatives of the European Union; the United States; Switzerland and South Africa took the floor.
19. The Chair thanked the Secretariat. In view of the continued interest on this agenda item, he proposed that the Council agree to revert to the item at its next meeting, so that the exchanges can once again take place, including on the basis of the updated Secretariat document of COVID-19 related IP measures.
20. The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to this item at its next meeting.

IP/C/M/103, IP/C/M/103/Add.1, IP/C/M/103/Rev.1