BRICS Foreign Ministers endorse support for WTO talks on IP waiver for Covid-19 vaccines

Foreign Ministers from the five BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — endorsed the need to support ongoing consideration in WTO on an Intellectual Property Rights waiver for Covid-19 vaccines and the use of flexibilities of the TRIPS agreement.

The Ministers, who participated in a virtual meeting chaired by India on Tuesday, reaffirmed their commitment to a strong Global Financial Safety Net with a quota-based and adequately resourced IMF at its centre and expressed their disappointment at the failure in addressing the quota and governance reforms under the 15th General Review of Quotas (GRQ), per a joint statement issued after the meeting.

“Over the years, BRICS has evolved its own unique model of engagement that is based on consensus. Our collective endeavour is also to ensure that global decision-making reflects contemporary realities,” said S Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs, in his opening remarks.

The Ministers stressed the need to restore the normal functioning of all WTO’s functions as highlighted in the Joint Statement by BRICS Trade Ministers on Multilateral Trading System and the WTO Reform of 2020. “They emphasised the primary importance of ensuring the restoration and preservation of the normal functioning of a two-stage WTO Dispute Settlement system, including the expeditious appointment of all Appellate Body members,” according to the statement.

The meeting was attended by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Alberto Franco Franca, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and South African Foreign Minister Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor.

Pandor, in her opening remarks, stated that the TRIPS waiver proposal by South Africa and India would facilitate wider access to technologies needed to produce vaccines and treatments and diagnostics so that poorer countries with capacity could produce. "We must address the global gap of vaccines access," she said.

Sharing vaccine doses

“They (the Ministers) also reiterated the need for sharing of vaccine doses, transfer of technology, development of local production capacities and supply chains for medical products, promotion of price transparency and called for exercise of due restraint in the implementation of measures that could hinder the flow of vaccines, health products and essential inputs,” the joint statement added. Recalling a resolution of the UNGA, the Ministers reiterated the call for reforms of the principal organs of the United Nations.

“They recommitted to instil new life in the discussions on reform of the UN Security Council and continue the work to revitalise the General Assembly and strengthen the Economic and Social Council. They took note with satisfaction of the 2020 Review of the Peace building architecture and agreed to reinforce their coordination in the Peace building Commission,” the joint statement affirmed.

The Ministers also called for the timely and successful completion of the 16th GRQ by December 15, 2023, to reduce the IMF’s reliance on temporary resources and to address under-representation of EMDCs (emerging markets and developing countries) for their meaningful engagement in the governance of IMF and to protect the voice and quota shares of its poorest and smallest members and have a new quota formula that better reflects the economic weight of members.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi promised support and assistance to India, on behalf of all BRICS nations, in its fight against the second wave of the pandemic.

“As long as it is needed by India, all BRICS partners including China will provide further support and assistance at any time. And we are confident that India will certainly overcome the pandemic,” he said, at the meeting.

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