On Friday, 22 March 2024, Ambassador Mauricio Alberto Bustamante Garcia, Permanent Mission of Colombia to the World Trade Organization (WTO) delivered the following statement at the WTO General Council in relation to the submission by Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, and India… Continue Reading
Nearly 18 months of tortuous negotiations on the extension of the June 17, 2022 Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS Agreement to COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics, in February 2024, the TRIPS Council threw in the towel after consensus could not be… Continue Reading
At the closing to the 13th WTO Ministerial in Abu Dhabi, the World Trade Organization adopted a decision to extend the moratorium on non-violation and situation complaints. The text of the decision (WT/MIN(24)/39) is reproduced here: The Ministerial Conference decides… Continue Reading
On 4 December 2023, the World Trade Organization (WTO) published a document (WT/GC/W/913, IP/C/W/694/Rev.1) entitled, “Decision text on extension of the 17 June 2022 Ministerial Decision to COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostics”. This document is a communication from Bangaldesh, The Plurinational… Continue Reading
The USITC has issued a 497 page report on the WTO negotiations over TRIPS and COVID. https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub5469.pdf The USITC release states: The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) today released a report about COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics and certain flexibilities under… Continue Reading
Updated Friday, 17 June 2022, 11:30 AM Geneva time. Early Friday morning, 17 June 2022, the WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference (chaired by Timur Suleymenov, Kazakshstan), adopted a Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS Agreement (WT/MIN(22)/W/15/Rev.2). The text can be found here.… Continue Reading
This new TRIPS text from the WTO, it’s generally the same as the earlier leaked text, but now with two brackets, one on the definition of eligible countries and the second one regarding requirement to list each patent in non-voluntary… Continue Reading
On 13 December 2021, the Office of United States Trade Representative (USTR) posted the following request for public comment in relation to its 2022 Special 301 Review: Identification of Countries Under Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974 noting… Continue Reading