On the occasion of the Twelfth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference (June 12-15), Caritas Internationalis calls on WTO Members to waive intellectual property rights for all medical technologies to support information sharing and technology transfer to developing countries, to help them respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. After 18 months of negotiations regarding the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), Caritas Internationalis would have wished that the reality of COVID-19 could open the door for finding and implementing effective, broad and comprehensive solutions to address the life-threatening challenges faced by the poorest and most vulnerable people of our world.
