World Trade Organization published: Trade plays an Important facet in Access to Medical, Goods and Services

By Abdul Rahman Bangura–

NEW AFRICA DAILY NEWS (NADN) Freetown, Sierra Leone - A statement disclosed by the World Trade Organization (WTO) has asserted leveraging trade to enhance pandemic defenses needs cooperation beyond trade consensuses.

The Multilateral Leaders Task Force on COVID-19 Vaccines, Therapeutics, and Diagnostics—set up by the World Bank and the WTO in cooperation with World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has summoned the international community to amp up its reaction to the existing and coming pandemics, the report asserted. These are actions to bolster partnership between states, non-state actors, and international organizations.

The initial objective should be to establish mechanisms as way to subsidize access to vital products such as vaccines in low-income nations and broaden supply and measurement capacity during a crisis and ensure that these facilities do not disappear when demand declines.

This effort would include cooperation to build manufacturing facilities in low and middle-income countries with a latent comparative advantage whose relatively small populations reduce the risk that the host-the country will intervene to meet domestic needs and the impact of potential intervention.

“A second goal potential mechanism is by sharing information on the operation of supply chains. A priority should be to establish a global clearinghouse to support the production of critical medical products and serve as a platform for companies to report bottlenecks, improve visibility on production capacity and distribution, and identify measures to respond to the pandemic,” it stated.

On complicity amongst international organizations, it explained actions to consolidate alliance should be on communicating the information and coordination spaces disclosed by the pandemic, such as by bolstering international standardization; strengthening the capacity of national regulatory agencies; developing good-practice policy frameworks for public procurement during crises; and Working with the private sector to encourage technology transfer and expand global emergency response capacity. 

For New Africa Daily News Abdul Rahman Bangura Reports,  Africa Correspondent