In Biden, Angela Merkel 'Vaccine Feud' Over India Plan, Over To WTO

India and South Africa have proposed a broad waiver from the Trips agreement's rules on the production and export of vaccines and other critical medical goods needed to combat the Covid-19 virus.

The pharmaceutical companies hate it. The Biden administration is embracing it. Now, finding common ground for wider distribution of Covid-19 vaccines in poorer countries falls to the World Trade Organization -- a body known more for its inability to do international deals than to clinch them. Drug companies have a powerful ally in Germany, along with other nations, opposing a waiver of rules protecting the intellectual property behind the vaccines. When the U.S. backed that waiver, it sent shares of American and European vaccine makers tumbling on Wednesday. At issue is an arcane 1995 WTO agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual-property rights, known as Trips. It provides enforceable rules for safeguarding trademarks, designs, inventions and other intangible goods in global trade. Trips has re-entered the political lexicon amid a debate over how to stem the current surge in the pandemic in lesser-developed countries. India and South Africa have proposed a broad waiver from the Trips agreement's rules on the production and export of vaccines and other critical medical goods needed to combat the Covid-19 virus.