WTO as a North’s puppet

25 Mar 2022

In the last few days it has come to our attention that a leaked document is circulating as a purported compromise on the TRIPS waiver by the WTO “Quad” – the sponsors, South Africa and India, and their main opposition, the EU and the US. But neither did South Africa nor did India agree to it as of yet. 🇿🇦🇮🇳🇺🇲🇪🇺

This leak was actually a move to further pressure them to accept an unworkable proposal that has no resemblance to the original one. However, world leaders, Nobel laureates, academics and civil society stood side by side with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, in supporting the original TRIPS waiver and rejecting this proposal.🚫

“We support you fully in rejecting this misleading and ineffectual proposal, which represents the European Union’s belligerent blockade of any actual waiver of IP barriers and the United States’ insistence that the IP waiver it supports be limited to vaccines”, said Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz in a joint-letter with leading economists Jayati Ghosh and Pan-African director of Oxfam, Peter Kamalingin.

The #Fem4PeoplesVaccine explained the ins and outs of this stealth political move in a new statement 🗣️✊🏿

Cartoons by @helodangeloarte