A critical appraisal of the COVID-19 TRIPS waiver

Document Type

Book Section

Publication Date

12-2023

ISBN

9781803922737

DOI

10.4337/9781803922744.00007

Abstract

This chapter offers a critical appraisal of an unprecedented proposal that India and South Africa submitted to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in October 2020, which called for a waiver of more than 30 provisions in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights to help combat COVID-19. It begins by identifying the arguments for and against this waiver, including those questioning its necessity, expediency, and effectiveness. The chapter then explores the difficult decision on whether one should support the instrument’s ultimate adoption. Breaking down the decision into two sub-questions - one on text-based negotiations and the other on the waiver’s adoption - this analysis sheds light on why the WTO membership ended up embracing the Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS Agreement in lieu of the waiver.

First Page

11

Last Page

30

Num Pages

20

Series

Elgar Intellectual Property and Global Development series

Publisher

Edward Elgar Publishing

Editor

Taina Pihlajarinne, Jukka Mähönen, & Pratyush N. Upreti

Book Title

Intellectual Property Rights in the Post Pandemic World: An Integrated Framework of Sustainability, Innovation and Global Justice

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