Ranking Republican on Ways and Means Tells USTR to Retain TRIPS Documents
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and one of the three Republicans vying to replace him after he retires, asked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to "preserve all documents and communications in your custody relating to the Administration’s decision to agree to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS waiver) that was adopted on June 17, 2022."
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The House is expected to be in Republican hands in 2023, and it's possible that the letter's co-signer, Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., would be the chairman of the committee then.
They noted that Republicans have repeatedly told USTR that her office has not properly consulted with Congress and stakeholders before agreeing to waive patent protections in poor countries for COVID-19 vaccines, and that Republicans have repeatedly said they oppose the action.
"By agreeing to the TRIPS waiver, the Biden Administration has effectively waived IP rights on vaccines for five years, with the possibility of an extension. This decision undermines American innovation and exposes American firms to those who have been trying to steal U.S. vaccine research," they wrote. "Even worse, the Administration also agreed to discussions to expand the scope of the waiver beyond vaccines to medical diagnostics and therapeutics."
They said they want the office to retain "all types of documents and essential communications related to the June 17, 2022, decision and the ongoing consideration of the proposed expansion of the scope of the waiver."
The countries in the WTO agreed to a waiver on patent protections for vaccines and said they would make a decision on whether the same sort of waiver should be applied to diagnostics and therapeutics in December.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not respond to a request for comment by press time.