Biden called upon to support India, South Africa at WTO on COVID-19 vaccines

The move comes after India and South Africa, along with several other countries, have urgently gone to the WTO seeking a time-limited waiver of the TRIPS agreement.

A group of lawmakers in the US have urged President Joe Biden to support the move by India and South Africa before the World Trade Organization for an emergency temporary waiver of some Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) rules to enable greater production and supply of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, and diagnostic tests. The move comes after India and South Africa, along with several other countries, have urgently gone to the WTO seeking a time-limited waiver of the TRIPS agreement. The previous Trump administration had opposed such a move. At a news conference here on Wednesday, the lawmakers, Rosa DeLauro, Jan Schakowsky, Earl Blumenauer, Lloyd Doggett, Adriano Espaillat, and Andy Levin, said this while urging President Biden to support the emergency temporary waiver at the WTO as requested by countries led by India and South Africa.