WTO’s MC12 postponed due to Omicron variant of Covid-19

WTO. Samhitha Bhat. Creatice Commons.

Geneva, 29 Nov (D. Ravi Kanth) – The emergence of the new Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has led to the postponement of the WTO’s 12th ministerial conference (MC12) that was scheduled to begin in Geneva on 30 November, exposing the fault-lines in the trade body’s seemingly insensitive decision-making process in failing to address, through the temporary TRIPS waiver, the global challenges of “vaccine inequity” and “vaccine apartheid”, said people familiar with the development.

The temporary TRIPS waiver, supported by almost two-thirds of the WTO membership, was blocked by the European Union and a few other countries, who have placed profits and patents ahead of saving human lives.

The waiver sought to suspend the implementation of several provisions in the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement relating to copyright, industrial designs, patents, and protection of undisclosed information for ramping-up global production of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines across countries in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic on an emergency basis.

After the Swiss government prohibited flights from Southern African countries, and insisted on a negative Covid- 19 test as well as a 10-day self-quarantine on officials coming from Brussels, the European Union’s headquarters, Hong Kong-China, as well as Israel, the WTO was forced to indefinitely postpone the ministerial conference.

The final blow to MC12 came after the EU officials were asked to undergo a Covid-19 test as well as self- quarantine for ten days, a measure that seems to have affected the plans drawn up by Brussels, which has been putting pressure on capitals to agree to the WTO reform agenda, said a person, who asked to be quoted.

Over the last few days, the EU was calling capitals and sending subtle threatening messages that if they did not support the proposed WTO reforms, then there would be repercussions in other areas such as on the permanent solution for public stockholding programs for food security, the person said.

It is a kind of poetic justice for the EU, which seems to have become the main conductor of the negotiations with its controversial proposals and vehement opposition to the TRIPS waiver, the person said.

EMERGENCY GC MEETING TO POSTPONE MC12

At an emergency informal General Council (GC) meeting late on Friday, the WTO’s General Council chair, Ambassador Dacio Castillo from Honduras, lamented that “given these unfortunate developments and the uncertainty that they cause, we see no alternative but to propose to postpone the Ministerial Conference and reconvene it as soon as possible when conditions allow.”

He told members, “I trust that you will fully appreciate the seriousness of the situation.”

It is not clear when MC12 will be reconvened but indications are that it could be held sometime in June next year.

Speculation is rife that it could be held in Nur Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan, which was originally scheduled to host the ministerial conference in June 2020.

The Kazakh government said last year that it could not hold the meeting due to the worsening Covid-19 pandemic.

At the informal GC meeting on Friday, the WTO director-general, Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said that “this has not been an easy recommendation to make … But as Director-General, my priority is the health and safety of all MC12 participants – ministers, delegates and civil society. It is better to err on the side of caution.”

She, however, wanted the negotiations to continue despite the postponement of the meeting with her call for capitals to empower the delegations in Geneva to take decisions.

“This does not mean that negotiations should stop. On the contrary, delegations in Geneva should be fully empowered to close as many gaps as possible. This new variant reminds us once again of the urgency of the work we are charged with,” the DG maintained.

It appears somewhat disingenuous for the DG to say that there is an urgency to start the work when the health and lives of people ought to trump all other areas of work, said people, who asked not to be quoted.

At a staff council meeting on 29 November, the DG exhorted the WTO staff to continue work until the winter break despite the reluctance of several countries to enter into any negotiations at this juncture.

TRIPS WAIVER

For more than a year, the DG and the EU seem to have worked closely in eclipsing the TRIPS waiver with extraneous narratives, despite calls from more than 100 civil society groups, Nobel laureates, and parliamentarians for the immediate implementation of the waiver.

According to a Guardian newspaper report on 29 November, “nursing unions in 28 countries have filed a formal appeal with the United Nations over the refusal of the United Kingdom, the European Union and others to temporarily waive patents for Covid vaccines, saying this has cost huge numbers of lives in developing nations.”

The letter from the nursing unions, which was signed by more than 2.5 million heath-care workers, said that “staff have witnessed at first hand the staggering numbers of deaths and the suffering caused by political inaction.”

“The refusal of some countries to budge on rules about intellectual property rights had contributed to a “vaccine apartheid” in which richer nations had secured at least 7 bn (billion) doses, while lower-income nations had about 300 million,” according to the Guardian newspaper report.

The opposition to the TRIPS waiver as well as growing “vaccine inequity” have played a major role in producing this dangerous new variant, which seems to have primarily surfaced in the unvaccinated population in the poorest countries due to lack of access to the Covid-19 vaccine doses manufactured by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca, said people, who preferred not to be quoted.

At the GC meeting on Friday, some dozen trade envoys took the floor to express their concerns and agreed with the GC decision to postpone the ministerial conference.

The chair of the fisheries subsidies negotiations, Ambassador Santiago Wills from Colombia, who had scheduled meetings on Saturday, had apparently cancelled them, with the capital-based officials returning to their capitals because of the enhanced restrictions, said a person, who asked not to be quoted.

- Third World Network