スティグリッツ教授の提言によりドイツはWTOの知的財産権に関する規定の一時免除に合意するか?
一昨日、12月15日付けの英国高級紙 The Guardian に米国のスティグリッツ教授がドイツの新しいショルツ総理に対して、"If Olaf Scholz is serious about progress, he must back a patent waiver for Covid vaccines" と題して新型コロナウィルス感染症(COVID-19)のワクチン製造に関して、WTOの知的財産権に関する規定の一時免除を訴える記事を投稿しています。The Guardian のサイトから私が重要と考える3パラだけを引用すると以下の通りです。
If Olaf Scholz is serious about progress, he must back a patent waiver for Covid vaccines…
As the country's new chancellor, he must take a second step in the interest of global fairness. So far, Germany has not been able to bring itself to do its part to ensure the availability of Covid-19 vaccines for everyone in the world. Doing so is imperative to global public health - but it is also in Germany's self-interest.
What is needed is for Germany to agree to a temporary exemption from the World Trade Organization's intellectual property rules. These currently stifle the worldwide production of Covid-19 vaccines and antiviral treatments. If this barrier were removed, more vaccine doses could be produced in, and for, developing countries. That is exactly what the world needs, as the emergence of the Omicron variant is proving, all over again.
So far the German government has been the main drag on agreeing to the patent waiver within the WTO. While major EU countries such as France, Italy and Spain support the exemption, the German government is actively lobbying other EU member states to reject granting the waiver. It is encouraging that Karl Lauterbach, an SPD politician and epidemiologist who has clearly spoken out in favour of the WTO waiver, has been appointed Germany's health minister. But now Scholz needs to act.
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スティグリッツ教授は、世界でのワクチン接種の現場につき、"while about 56% of the world's 7.9 billion people have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, the figure is 7.2% in low-income countries" と数字を上げつつ、特に低い("particularly low")のはアフリカである、と指摘しています。私はスティグリッツ教授と違って、ショルツ首相に提言するような立場にはありませんが、思いはまったく同じです。途上国におけるCOVID-19の感染拡大抑制のため、自国の特定企業の利益だけに着目するのではなく、先進国はなすべきことに取り組まねばなりません。
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