Supply chains for the vaccine manufacturers must be kept open: Piyush Goyal

Supply chains for the vaccine manufacturers must be kept open and unbridled as the entire world is in dire need of the shots, union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal told US Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai in a virtual meeting.

A week after the US backed a temporary waiver of intellectual property protection for Covid-19 vaccines to help end the global pandemic, Goyal and Tai discussed measures to increase vaccine availability in an inclusive and equitable manner to fight the pandemic.

“Had a fruitful discussion with US Trade Representative AmbassadorTai focusing on India & US working together on Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver. This will ensure affordable COVID-19 vaccines for all,” Goyal said in a tweet on Friday.

The proposal of India on waiver of certain Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) provisions to increase global vaccine production in order to take on the challenge of vaccinating the poorest of the poor and saving lives was also discussed, an official statement said.

In October last year, India and South Africa had submitted a joint proposal for waiving some sections of the TRIPS agreement, including copyrights, patents, to help more countries, especially middle and low income nations to access vaccines, amid the Covid-19 crisis. The developed nations have opposed the proposal that has received the support of three-fourth of all the member nations at the WTO till now.