On the eve of the Interministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the director-general of the organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, recognized the concern among emerging countries in relation to possible trade barriers to their products due to environmental issues.
“Countries fear that, from a trade perspective, measures may be adopted that restrict market access, resulting in protectionism,” she said at a press conference in which the state participated. “We are trying to work so that developing countries can participate and have a voice in our approach to trade, climate and the environment.”
Last week, the European Union announced that it is studying restrictions on imports of products from deforested territories – a topic that should appear in the debates at the WTO conference that begins next Tuesday in Geneva. The biannual meeting was supposed to take place in June 2020 in Kazakhstan, but had the date and location changed because of the pandemic.
The reduction – or even elimination – of fossil fuel subsidies and carbon price regimes should also be on the table.
Access to vaccines
The director-general of the WTO stressed, however, that reaching an answer against covid-19 will still be the most important point of the conference. Okonjo-Iweala stressed that not even informal channels are working to advance negotiations to suspend the intellectual property rights of vaccines against the disease. “The formal path is stopped. We tried things informally, but conversations also stopped,” he said.
The breaking of patents on immunizing agents was suggested by India and South Africa at the WTO and received support from the US, but was rejected by European countries. Brazil was against the proposal, but is now seeking a “consensual” agreement.
“We hope that ministers come up with a response to the pandemic that includes a compromise on intellectual property,” said Okonjo-Iweala. According to her, the WTO has been working so that the manufacture of vaccines takes place in different locations, which can favor the access of poor countries to the immunizing agent, and also to increase transparency in contracts and vaccine donations.
The information is from the newspaper The State of São Paulo.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/emerging-companies-fear-protectionism-on-account-of-the-environment-says-omc-istoe-dinheiro/
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