The Vice President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, welcomed the agreements reached this Friday within the framework of the World Trade Organization on fishing, vaccines against Covid-19 and food safety.
We work hard to eliminate disagreements,” Dombrovskis said at the end of the XII Ministerial Conference, the first to be held in the last five years and which took place, he said, “in difficult and unprecedented economic and geopolitical circumstances.”
Regarding the agreement that suspends the patents of SARS CoV-2 vaccines, the European Union Commissioner for Trade said that it is “good news” for Africa, a continent that has very low vaccination rates against the current pandemic. .
The agreement within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO) “supports the manufacture and export of vaccines against Covid-19 and, if necessary, without the authorization of the patent holder” of the compound, he said.
The European Union, together with countries such as the United Kingdom and Switzerland, where important pharmaceutical companies are located, pressed for more than a year and a half so that the agreement did not include treatments or tests for Covid-19, defending the importance of intellectual property (patents) considering that it is a “factor that drives innovation”.
In this regard, Dombrovskis stated that the agreement “also maintains the operating standards of intellectual property, with incentives in relation to investment, research and technology transfer.”
Regarding food issues, and at a time when, according to the Vice President of the European Commission, “Russia is using food as a weapon of war”the final declaration of the WTO is based on bases that seek to respond to the crisis of essential goods that affects several States.
In particular, Dombrovskis called on WTO members to “avoid unnecessary restrictions on exports” and pledged to support agricultural production “in developed countries.”
The new fishing agreement —within the framework of the WTO— “has declared it illegal for provision of subsidies to vessels engaged in illegal and unregulated fishing on the high seas“.
Source: Observadora
