Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Monday raised various concerns about food security and TRIPS (Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) wavier at the WTO Ministerial in Geneva.

He said super-profits of a few pharmaceutical companies are prevailing over global good. Goyal stressed the need to ramp up the manufacture of therapeutics for test and treat strategy but he said that there is opposition to the same.

The minister urged the World Trade Organization (WTO) to adopt the TRIPS waiver proposal to ramp up vaccine production. He said part of the draft declaration does not mention public stock holding for food security purposes. He had cited India’s successful food security program which had enabled the provision of free food to millions of people during the pandemic.

Goyal added that regrettably, discussions had reached a deadlock in the council even as South Africa and India had continued with constructive engagement with the European Union and the United States.

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First Published:Jun 13, 2022 9:43 PM IST