IFPTE Expresses Concern with Potential WTO TRIPS Waiver for COVID Vaccines with USTR

After President Shearon and other labor leaders met this week with United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai regarding requests from some nations to ramp up COVID vaccine manufacturing through the issuance of a waiver to the WTO Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) protections, IFPTE penned a letter to the office of the USTR, noting that while “A TRIPS waiver might be one way to do that…,” but, “from our perspective in manufacturing, we believe a coordinated effort with existing manufacturing know-how would produce more vaccine doses, on a shorter timeline, with fewer production problems, less risk, and higher public acceptance of the vaccines.” Read the full IFPTE letter.