TRIPS WAIVER Negotiations – Leaked Text

In October 2020, South Africa and India submitted a proposal at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to waive certain of its Intellectual Property (IP) rules to enable many more manufacturers to produce vaccines, testing kits and medicines as well as other medical technologies, to help end the COVID-19 pandemic – this is commonly called the ‘TRIPS WAIVER’.

The South African government and its negotiating team has played a critical and leading role in bringing together over 100 member countries of the WTO in support of a TRIPS Waiver and has engaged the opposition from rich countries and the pharmaceutical industry with reasoned arguments. President Ramaphosa has also demonstrated strong leadership as a champion of the TRIPS Waiver.

However, discussions at the WTO have dragged on for almost a year and a half with an agreement, supported by at least 100 countries, being blocked by rich countries.

In March 2022, a ‘leaked document’ was published– indicating that a proposed ‘text’ for a negotiated settlement, existed.

Many commentators argue that the leaked text is a ‘watering down’ of the TRIPS Waiver;  represents an inadequate and ‘bad deal’; and should not be signed onto by countries in the global south and others.

Below is a collection of links to Open Letters to the SA Government, Opinion Pieces, Commentary, Analysis, and Media Articles that explain the reaction to the leaked text and which sets out its limitations. 

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Open Letters:

• Access the Professor Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel Laureate), Professor Jayati Ghosh and Mr Peter Kamalingin Letter to the South African President, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, here.
• Access the South African Academics and Researchers Open Letter to the South African President, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, here.
• Access the South African Civil Society Letter to South Africa’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ebrahim Patel, here.
• Access the Archbishop Thabo Makgoba; Professor Mariana Mazzucato; Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz; Professor Imraan Valodia; Dr Rohinton P. Medhora; Professor Srinath Reddy; letter to the Prime Minister of India, here.

Key resources and links:

• QUAD’s tentative agreement on TRIPS and COVID 19 and The proposed WTO agreement on intellectual property and COVID 19 vaccines should not require that authorizations of non-voluntary use of patents list all patents covered.
• MSF responds to potential compromise on the ‘TRIPS Waiver’
• Leaked Text Is Not the WTO COVID-19 Medicines Waiver We Need
• Too little, too late: We need a permanent TRIPS waiver mechanism
• The Lowest Common Denominator: The Quad Text on the TRIPS Waiver
• Op-ed: ‘The leaked … text promises a very bad deal: South Africa owes it to the nations that supported its initial waiver proposal to reject the text and continue negotiations’ -(Professor Yousuf Vawda, Fatima Hassan, Professor Leslie London

Media articles:

• A compromise is reached on an intellectual property waiver for Covid-19 vaccines, but does it go far enough?
• Compromise reached on COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property rights waiver
• Ramaphosa urged not to endorse ‘sham of a waiver’ for Covid-19 patents
• Joseph Stiglitz urges SA to reject compromise on Covid-19 patent waiver
• Too little, too late: On COVID-19 vaccines and patent rights
• Ban-Ki Moon | South Africa and India must insist on a better deal at the WTO to end the pandemic
• People’s Vaccine Alliance’s India arm demands IP waiver on COVID-19 vaccines
• COVID Vaccines: WTO Compromise Over India and South Africa’s Proposal is Disappointing
• Top Economists and Oxfam Leader Demand Truly Just Covid IP Waiver
• South Africa urged to reject EU offer on COVID waiver
• Nobel Prize winning economist Professor Stiglitz and Economics Professor Jayati Ghosh strongly support South Africa not agreeing to this proposal
• The ‘compromise outcome’ at the WTO could see India and South Africa losing their lead theme in the COVID-19 fight
• Linking draft IP “compromise” with MC12 deliverables?
• Experts write to PM against WTO proposal on COVID-19 vaccine waivers
• Modi urged to reject possible TRIPS waiver
• Economists, health experts urge Modi to reject compromise solution on vaccine waiver
• Economists & humanitarians urge Prime Minister Modi to reject leaked WTO Covid-19 proposal
• Narendra Modi: Economists and health experts urge Modi to reject compromise solution on vaccine exemption
• Modi urged to reject possible TRIPS waiver