It’s pretty weird when the hard left president of France makes more sense than China Joe
Macron voices concerns over Covid vaccines patent waiver
Emmanuel Macron has echoed the German government’s concerns over Joe Biden’s proposed suspension of intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines as he urged the US and the UK to instead start exporting doses around the world.
Arriving at an EU summit in Porto in Portugal, the French president expressed his reservations about the White House proposal to waive patents and criticised the lack of exports coming from “Anglo-Saxon†countries.
“What is the current issue?†he asked. “It is not really about intellectual property. Can you give intellectual property to laboratories that do not know how to produce and will not produce tomorrow? The main issue for solidarity is the distribution of doses.
“Today, the Anglo-Saxons block many of these ingredients and vaccines,†he said. “Today, 100% of the vaccines produced in the United States are for the American market.â€
Neither the UK or the US has a formal export ban but Washington has deployed the Defense Production Act to force manufacturers to fulfil domestic contracts ahead of other orders while the British government’s contract with AstraZeneca also prioritises UK requirements.
A waiver on vaccine patents would allow pharmaceutical companies to make copycat vaccines without fear of legal action by manufacturers such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
Macron makes an interesting point: the Biden admin has actually restricted the export of goods to India that involve vaccine ingredients. And, let’s not forget that India blocked exports of vaccines from their own country back in March.
The proposal was aired by Biden’s top trade adviser, Katherine Tai, on Wednesday. Her claim that the “extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures†forced a public statement from the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in which she said she was “open†to discussing the issue.
Speaking in Porto, Von der Leyen took a bullish approach, in a sign of the frustration felt at the US approach. She said: “We should be open to this discussion but when we lead this discussion there needs to be a 360 degree view on it as we need vaccines now for the world. In the short and the medium term the IP waiver will not solve the problem, will not bringing a single dose of vaccine in the short and medium term.â€
Wouldn’t it be better to simply export the vaccines which are being produced? Quite a bit faster.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, had already rejected the US idea, warning that “production capacities and the high-quality standards, not the patents†is the problem facing the world and that a “waiver†would have “serious implicationsâ€.
“The protection of intellectual property is a source of innovation and it must remain so in the future,†she had said on Thursday.
Merkel is more reasonable than Biden. Let that sink in.
On Friday the Canadian government said it was also willing to discuss the idea but emphasised the need to foster entrepreneurial innovation. “Canada has actively worked with partners to identify barriers to vaccine access many of which are unrelated to intellectual property, such as supply chain constraints,†Canada’s trade minister, Mary Ng, said. “Our government firmly believes in the importance of protecting IP [intellectual property] and recognises the integral role that industry has played in innovating to develop and deliver life-saving Covid-19 vaccines.â€
And Canada is more reasonable and smarter than the China Joe admin.
Read: French President Has Concerns Over China Joe’s COVID Vaccine Waiver Push »