China says it won’t use new TRIPS proposal as WTO moves to text-based talks

The majority of World Trade Organization members this week supported the recently released compromise proposal to waive some intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines as the basis for text-based negotiations in Geneva, a process likely to be at least somewhat smoothed by China’s pledge on Tuesday not to take advantage of the text’s flexibilities. The proposal , presented last week to the members by Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala following high-level negotiations with the U.S., the European Union, India and South Africa,...