Today, 150 civil society organizations from around the world have sent a letter in which we ask all trade ministers to reject the current ministerial decision text on the TRIPS Agreements and on the exemption to deal with the pandemic against the COVID-19.
From Salud por Derecho we consider this text inadequate and contradictory with the fundamental principles of the WTO. It is, furthermore, the result of an exclusionary process, biased by a group of rich countries opposed to the success of the original initiative, proposed by India and South Africa in 2020 and supported by more than 100 countries. The text as it stands at the moment can set a serious precedent in that it prevents fundamental elements such as the re-export of vaccines or the application of TRIPS Plus with bureaucratic burdens for those countries that decide to take advantage of this decision that will make its implementation very difficult.
For this reason, we ask the Ministry of Industry, and with it the Government of Spain, not to accept this text and to demand a real and effective exemption from the TRIPS Agreement, as originally proposed, and that it be carried out through democratic negotiations, transparent and responsible.
This is the letter.
