21. Department of Commerce · Notable
Oppose WTO TRIPS intellectual property waivers
Printed page 685 21. Department of Commerce
“Oppose efforts to provide intellectual property waivers for cutting-edge technologies, including for COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics, through the World Trade Organization’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement or any other mechanism.”
What has happened
- Done
Restated a year later, word for word, in the 2026 Special 301 Report released by Ambassador Greer on 2026-04-30 — the same paragraph on the June 2022 waiver and the same conclusion that TRIPS has sufficient flexibility without one. Two consecutive annual reports carrying the position is what makes this the Administration's standing view rather than a one-off line.
- Done
The United States put its opposition on the record in the instrument that carries its standing intellectual-property position abroad. The 2025 Special 301 Report, released 2025-04-29, addresses the June 2022 WTO Ministerial Decision that "set forth clarifications and a waiver for eligible WTO Members to authorize the use of the subject matter of a patent required for the production and supply of COVID-19 vaccines", and says of it: "This five-year waiver has not increased access to COVID-19 vaccines but instead may actually negatively impact the development of new treatments and cures for the next pandemic by weakening the standard for IP protections and furthering a false narrative about the role of IP and access to medicines." The Report then states the affirmative position the Quote asks for — that TRIPS already has "sufficient flexibility" for trading partners to address public health problems, so no waiver is needed. The Report does not name the dormant proposal to extend the 2022 waiver to therapeutics and diagnostics; the words "therapeutic" and "diagnostic" appear nowhere in it in that sense.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Corrected 2026-09-06 (read-queue ticket 07). The 2026-08-31 pass recorded not started and said
in terms that “the 2025 and 2026 Special 301 reports — argue for stronger IP protection abroad
without addressing the waiver question”. Both reports address it directly, in a section headed
Intellectual Property and Health; the earlier pass browsed USTR’s press index and never opened the
report PDFs. The reports are reachable: the 2026 one at
ustr.gov/sites/default/files/files/Press/Releases/2026/2026%20Special%20301%20Report.pdf, linked
from the April 2026 press release, and the 2025 one under a different directory entirely
(files/Issue_Areas/Enforcement/2025%20Special%20301%20Report%20(final).pdf), linked from the
report’s landing page rather than from the release — which is why guessing the 2025 path from the
2026 path 404s.
Judgment note. This is an “oppose efforts” ask, and playbook §3b’s reject-any rule says such an ask sits at not started until a triggering effort appears, then moves onto the ordinary ladder with the rung set by the response. The trigger here is not a fresh proposal but the waiver already granted: the June 2022 Ministerial Decision is in force for five years, and the Quote asks the Administration to oppose IP waivers “through the World Trade Organization’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement or any other mechanism” — a waiver in force is the thing being opposed. USTR’s response is a formal, dated, published statement rejecting it and rejecting the rationale for extending it, repeated in two successive annual reports, so done. It would become reversed if the United States supported an extension.
- Action
- restrict
- Object
- WTO TRIPS intellectual property waivers
- ID
- 1906