Non-governmental organisations staged a protest in the WTO's central atrium, chanting slogans and unfurling banners reading:"No monopolies on COVID-19 medical tools" and"End vaccine apartheid".
"It's an indictment of the WTO system: it's completely broken, it can't respond to a pandemic, it has no ability to put anything other than maximising profits for corporations ahead of anything else."In October 2020, India and South Africa began pushing for the WTO to lift IP rights on COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments to help ensure more equitable access in poorer nations.
Beijing has promised not to use the facilities granted to developing countries in the draft agreement, but, according to several diplomats, Washington wants this commitment in writing.