Way short on resolving key issues, ‘limits room’ for future talks: Experts on WTO deal

On vaccine patents, the final deal included patent waivers to combat the pandemic, limited just to the output and export of vaccines that New Delhi had earlier described as “too late in the day” to tackle the pandemic. Therapeutics and diagnostics have been left out for now.

In the final pact, India’s demand for a permanent solution to the peace clause on breaching the limit on public stockholding and the government-to-government sales of food grains from central procurement have not been addressed. The restart of the dispute settlement body, another long-pending demand, continues to hang fire.

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“No waiver for vaccines has been a huge disappointment. India has done well and all of us were in support of the fact that the country was leading developing countries in seeking a waiver. We may not need it for the vaccine immediately, but we could need it if a medicine for Covid is developed. Compulsory licence has been the proposal of the EU that has been agreed upon,” said Biswajit Dhar, professor, Centre for Economic Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Another disappointment is that in the fisheries subsidies agreement there are no explicit provisions on special and differential treatment that can be invoked for granting subsidies to small fisherfolk, he said. “The biggest concern for me has been the announcement by the government that they are happy with what they have been able to negotiate. Now, if the government is happy with these achievements… can they ever go back and say that they want these to be rolled back or changed at future meetings… Developed countries will turn around and say that the official announcement after the meeting was in support of it,” he added.

India had earlier called for a ban on subsidies in 25 years for countries fishing in areas beyond their exclusive economic zones.

Another senior official, who has been part of such negotiations earlier, said the biggest disappointment has been India not being able to negotiate the 25-year carve-out period on continuing government support to fishermen to build fishing infrastructure for its own fishermen. “India needed to get this waiver because the country has just started this plan to provide subsidies to fishermen to upgrade infrastructure. All developed nations that include countries like South Korea and Japan have invested heavily in their fishing infrastructure through subsidies. This has led to overcapacity globally. Developing countries like India, however, have a lot of catch up to do,” he said.

The official said India has just announced a subsidy scheme for fishermen. “Without the carve-out period in place, there are doubts over implementation of those schemes,” he added. The government has announced the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana scheme to establish a comprehensive framework and reduce infrastructural gaps in the fishing sector.

On the other disappointment like being able to fetch Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver for vaccines, the official said this won’t impact India’s fight against Covid. “However, a waiver would have definitely helped various countries, where vaccination levels are still much lower. With a waiver, India could have made these vaccines and supplied them to these countries (mainly African countries),” he said.

A detailed mail to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry did not elicit a response. Briefing the media after the wrapping up of the ministerial in Geneva, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal termed the conference as an “outcome oriented” success, according to a PTI report.

India, South Africa and 63 co-sponsors of the waiver proposal had made the TRIPS waiver proposal in October 2020 to enable middle and low income nations to get access to Covid-19 vaccines and drugs. The final pact was way short of what the original proposal intended to achieve.

The four-day conference, which got underway on Sunday, was scheduled to end on June 15. It was, however, extended by two more days to push trade ministers to hammer out a deal to maintain a sense of purpose at a multilateral organisation that is fighting for its relevance.