(ANSA) - GENEVA, 17 JUN - The 164 member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) achieved an "unprecedented" set of results last night, rejoiced the director general of the WtoNgozi Okonjo-Iweala.
"We worked day and night, but we don't come home empty-handed," she added.
At the end of the 12th ministerial conference of the WTO, ministers and delegates adopted texts of understanding on the response of the WTO to the Covid-19 pandemic and on the preparation for future pandemics, on the response to food insecurity, on exemptions for the purchases of goods by the Food Program world, a ministerial decision on the TRIPS (intellectual property) agreement and an agreement on fisheries subsidies, the WTO announced in a statement.
Started on Sunday and extended by one day, the WTO ministerial was dominated by uncertainties until the end.
Particularly awaited, the decision of the ministers on the response to the pandemic, with exceptions to the rules of trade and intellectual property, to facilitate access to vaccines and other medical products: "The declaration you have adopted will allow more predictable access to medical products and their components, during this pandemic and future ones, "said Okonjo-Iweala.
Less satisfied, the non-governmental organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which, while acknowledging some changes to the text compared to more restrictive versions, said it was overall "disappointed" by the fact that it was not possible to achieve "a real renunciation of intellectual property, which covers all medical instruments and all countries ".
(HANDLE).
