Ministerial conference was postponed in November due to Omicron variant emerging. India & South Africa had proposed intellectual property rights waiver for Covid vaccines in 2020.
New variant Omicron has put ‘spotlight’ back on the fact that there exists ‘discrimination between vaccinated and unvaccinated people’, India said at a WTO meet in Geneva.
When WTO delegates leave Geneva for their August break, they will be pausing their fractious debate over a proposal to waive intellectual-property protections for Covid vaccines until September.
India along with 61 co-sponsors submitted a revised proposal in May on TRIPS waiver for all WTO members regarding prevention, containment, and treatment of Covid.
US & China have backed the revised proposal by India and SA, but EU, Australia, Japan & others continue to oppose it and plan to prevent any formal negotiations on the matter.
Vaccine manufacturers China and Russia never came forward to share the formula with or waive IPR for other BRICS members. So much for the cooperation in the Covid fight.
Most Indian ministries do not have much expertise on international trade, so they oppose every proposal of reduction of tariff. We need lateral entry of experts.
New CPI series will take 2024 as base year, will provide more accurate measure of inflation, spending on digital services. Expected to enhance representation and reliability, says Saurabh Garg.
The agreement, signed after meeting between Rajnath and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on sidelines of ADMM-Plus in Kuala Lumpur, aims to deepen bilateral ties in the critical sector.
This world is being restructured and redrawn by one man, and what’s his power? It’s not his formidable military. It’s trade. With China, it turned on him.
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