WTO warns of risks of inequality in access to vaccines

World

Published: 2021-07-30 10:08

Last Updated: 2024-03-28 14:10


WTO warns of risks of inequality in access to vaccines
WTO warns of risks of inequality in access to vaccines

The World Trade Organization warned Thursday of the risks of inequality in access to coronavirus vaccines in the world on global trade, which is currently recording a faster-than-expected pace of recovery.

"Global trade has recovered faster than expected since the second half of 2020, after falling sharply during the first pandemic wave," said WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iwela, when presenting to member states the semi-annual report on global trade.

She added that the organization expects the volume of merchandise trade to grow by eight percent in 2021 and by 4 four percent in 2022.

But this rosy picture of recovery hides huge disparities.

"As with the economy in general, trade performance varies sharply from one region to another, and inequality in access to COVID-19 vaccines is one of the main reasons for these discrepancies," Okonjo-Iwela said.

The International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday in its new global economic outlook that inequality in access to vaccines is widening inequality in the economic recovery between countries.

And Okonjo-Iwela, the former Nigerian Finance Minister who took office at the head of the World Trade Organization on the first of last March, has made it a priority to make the organization an essential tool in fighting the pandemic by finding ways to increase the production of vaccines.

But member states are deeply divided on the issue of temporarily suspending patents protecting vaccine production, a proposal the Director-General has defended.

The Director-General warned that "the failure to ensure universal access to vaccines poses grave risks to the global economy and public health," noting that poor countries have so far been able to vaccinate only one percent of their population, while this percentage rises to 50 percent in other wealthy countries.