WTO members to come into force. "This is a major step forward and this compromise is the result of many long and difficult hours of negotiations," Okonjo-Iweala said. "But we are not there yet.
We have more work to do to ensure that we have the support of the entire WTO membership." Since October 2020, South Africa and India have called for IP rights to be temporarily lifted for coronavirus vaccines during the pandemic in order to boost production and address the gaping inequality in access between rich and poor nations.
But the idea has met with fierce opposition from pharmaceutical giants and many of their host countries. They have argued that patents are not the main roadblocks to scaling up production and warn the move could hamper innovation.
Okonjo-Iweala's statement came hours after Adam Hodge, spokesman for the US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, announced that lengthy talks had resulted in a "compromise outcome that offers the most promising path toward achieving a concrete and meaningful" result. "No agreement on text has been reached and we are in the process of consulting on the outcome," he added. - 'Wrong solution': pharma lobby - Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister, said steps to widen the discussion to all 164 WTO members should start immediately.