During a lecture at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) on October 3, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala underscored the role of trade policies in enhancing access to critical medical supplies amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine.
"A wide range of tools, including manufacturing investment in the necessary human resource skills, regulatory convergence, procurement policies and financing, need to be deployed in a coherent manner to achieve equity and build future resilience,” she said.
Highlighting that trade has been a force connecting the world for thousands of years, she noted that diseases have traveled with goods, services, and people. The globalization of trade has led to what historians describe as the "microbial union of the world." Historical examples include the spread of the Black Death along trade routes and the introduction of diseases like influenza and smallpox to the Americas by European traders. In more recent times, the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the speed at which diseases can circulate globally.
"In our own recent experience, trade and cross-border cooperation were vitally important parts of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic," the Director-General said before elaborating on the topic. She particularly pointed out how trade policies of the WTO and all individual states hindered the distribution of vaccines and other essential medical products to the developing countries, because of the defensive approach of the developed world.
While trade played a role in both exacerbating and mitigating public health challenges, the Director-General emphasized the importance of equitable access to medical products and innovations. He noted the complexities of balancing intellectual property protections with access to essential medicines, citing the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement's flexibilities and the need for domestic legal frameworks. The Director-General also highlighted the role of procurement policies, regional cooperation, and diversification of pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity in improving access to medicines.
As my favorite Igbo proverb puts it, “Aka nni Kwo aka ekpe, aka ekepe akwo akanni wancha adi ocha” — if the right hand washes the left hand, and the left hand washes the right hand, then both become clean. It is a call for collective action to get the job done,” she said.
She called for a balance between incentivizing innovation and ensuring equitable access to lifesaving technologies. The Director-General stressed that trade, international cooperation, and the WTO could contribute to global health equity but required complementary efforts to address access, concentration, and distribution of medical products.
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