WTO chief hopes to seal IP waivers for COVID vaccines in Dec.
The Hindu
She expresses her anguish at second wave of COVID-19 that had engulfed India and hopes the situation will be resolved soon
World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Wednesday said she was pushing for member-countries to reach an agreement of sorts by July and deliver a final outcome on the intellectual property (IP) waivers for COVID-19 vaccines at the body’s next ministerial council meeting in December this year. “There are times when we can’t afford to take months and years… We are talking about lives being lost. Someone told me I am very ambitious. Yes, I am very ambitious when there are lives,” she said, emphasising the urgency to arrive at a swift pact on the intellectual property waivers needed to vaccinate the world faster. During an interaction with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and World Economic Forum (WEF) president Berge Brendeshe, she expressed her anguish at the second wave of COVID-19 that had engulfed India and hoped the situation would be resolved soon.More Related News