Members of the EP Committees on International Trade (INTA) debate how to increase vaccine production effectively with Ngozi OKONJO-IWEALA, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Brussels

exchange of views

meeting

Committee on International Trade

World Trade Organisation

vaccination strategy (T)

Exchange of views with Ngozi OKONJO-IWEALA, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) at EP Committee on International Trade: extracts

Title: Exchange of views with Ngozi OKONJO-IWEALA, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) at EP Committee on International Trade: extracts

SOUNDBITE (English), Ngozi OKONJO-IWEALA, Director-General of the WTO, I feel that the WTO has moved a little way away from its purpose. I found it a place to be dealing more with negotiations, where things have become a bit of a zero sum game rather than about people. If we are about people, about creating jobs and supporting sustainable development, why is it taking us 20 years to negotiate a fisheries agreement? Why does it take 20 years to negotiate agriculture? Surely, if you are about people, you must do better than that, and that's one of the reasons I'm here, because I know you are allies in trying to move the WTO to do things better and faster.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ngozi OKONJO-IWEALA, Director-General of the WTO, Trade is back and is expected to grow at about 8 % this year. If we could accelerate the sharing of vaccines, vaccine equity, we project, it could grow by an additional 2% points, by 10%

SOUNDBITE (English), Ngozi OKONJO-IWEALA,  Director-General of the WTO, I've said to you that the WTO needs to get results. And I think those results now and for MC12 should focus very clearly on three areas. The first is on trade and health, and making the vaccine inequity we see now, improving it. We cannot have a world in which some people hang behind and are second class with respect to their access.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ngozi OKONJO-IWEALA, Director-General of the WTO, The second part where I think trade can play a strong role, Isn't boosting the scarce global supply of vaccines? This is an issue that is of paramount importance, and it's an issue I've watched for five years, I was chair with GAVI, the Global Vaccine Alliance.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ngozi OKONJO-IWEALA, Director-General of the WTO, That's been said, the world has to rethink the way that manufacturing is distributed and where supply chains should be managed. So we need to decentralise manufacturing. It's anomalous that Africa, with 1.3 billion people, has 0.17% of the manufacturing capacity of the world. So anomalous that Africa imports 99% of its vaccines and 90% of its pharmaceuticals.