Brazil seeks a third way to break impasse on vaccine patents

Brazil will defend a third way to overcome the impasse at the World Trade Organization over the so-called vaccine nationalism and a possible waver to allow the break of patents in the fight against Covid-19, as proposed by India and South Africa.

The debate revolves around a generalized moratorium on the agreement that regulates intellectual property rights (known by the acronym Trips). Organizations such as Oxfam, Human Rights Watch and Doctors Without Borders pressure the Bolsonaro administration to join the group coordinated by Indians and South Africans, which has the support of 55 other countries - including Pakistan, Bolivia, Venezuela and several others least-developed nations.

Because of its resistance to the two options, Brazil has been accused of betraying its historical principles. In 2001, under the leadership of the duo José Serra, then Minister of Health, and Celso Amorim, Brazilian ambassador to Geneva at the time, the country played a leading role in the negotiations that culminated in a relaxation of the Trips agreement to suspend drug patents, allowing the compulsory license of an antiretroviral used in the treatment of HIV.

Sarquis Buainain Sarquis, foreign trade and economic affairs secretary of Itamaraty, the Brazilian Foreign Affairs Ministry, says that it is wrong to see the impasse at WTO as a duel between rich and emerging countries. "It is a narrative that does not correspond to the reality of the facts," he argues.

Other developing nations - Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Turkey - were also identified by Itamaraty as critical of the proposal for a widespread moratorium on the Trips agreement to combat the pandemic.

Brazil has reservations regarding the time and scope of the proposal. First, because the moratorium would last the entire pandemic period, which may still take months or years. Second, because it would not only cover patents or vaccines. Any patent, copyright, industrial design, trademark or business secret allegedly linked to Covid-19 could have its protection suspended. This could involve items as diverse as the design of a PFF2 mask or a valve used in ventilators.

Brazil objects the potential effectiveness of the measure requested by India and South Africa. The Foreign Ministry believes that, in the event of a mere breach of patents, the world will not suddenly see a significant increase in the production of immunizers.

For the Bolsonaro administration, there are more important bottlenecks that have slowed...

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