WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley issued the following statement responding to the United States Trade Representative’s support for extending the deadline for negotiations of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) waiver of intellectual property protections for COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostics, stating:
“Instead of kicking the can down the road by extending the deadline for discussion, the Chamber urges the Biden administration to oppose once and for all the WTO’s failing and harmful IP waiver proposal. Intellectual property played a critical role in discovering COVID-19 therapeutics, diagnostics, and vaccines and empowered companies to voluntarily license these innovative treatments and technologies worldwide. Despite waiver proponents' continued support for this fact-free narrative, IP has never been an impediment to access.
It is time to end this ideologically driven discussion that would only offshore American innovation and undermine U.S. national security by forfeiting our IP to foreign competitors.”
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