Breaking: Labor calls on Government to co-sponsor WTO vaccine monopolies waiver

October 13:

Ahead of this week’s meeting of the WTO’s Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), Labor has called on the Government to co-sponsor a waiver on medical monopolies.

In a statement to the media, Shadow Minister for Trade Madeleine King, has called on her counterpart, Dan Tehan, to “build a coalition of support for the TRIPS waiver in the WTO” and to “co-sponsor the COVID-19 vaccine waiver in the WTO”, adding:

“Our global economy will only move through the COVID-19 global pandemic if vaccines are available to all. Vaccine accessibility in both developed and developing nations is imperative for global supply chains to recover.”

The full statement can be read here.

The Shadow Minister adds her voice to the growing coalition of civil society organisations calling on Australia to co-sponsor the vaccine waiver at the WTO, including AFTINET, ActionAid, Amnesty International, Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), the Australian Catholic Bishop’s Office for Social Justice, Ecology and Peace, The Salvation Army, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Oxfam, Public Health Association of Australia, Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA, and the Uniting Church.