ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed significant deficiencies in global trade regulation, particularly the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) failure to guarantee fair access to life-saving vaccines, treatments, and vital health technologies. This study rigorously analyzes the WTO’s deficiencies during the epidemic, including its inability to harmonize intellectual property safeguards under the TRIPS Agreement with the essential right to health and overarching principles of global justice. The topics encompass the impasse about the TRIPS waiver, the ensuing vaccine inequity, and the ongoing stagnation of the WTO’s dispute resolution procedure. These failings collectively reinforced entrenched systemic imbalances between rich and developing nations, exacerbating historical patterns of exploitation and exclusion.This study, rooted in John Rawls’ theory of justice and Thomas Pogge’s critique of institutional damages, contends that the WTO, while presenting an appearance of formal neutrality and market liberalism, really perpetuates and legitimizes global economic hierarchy. It argues that the existing trade framework emphasizes corporate interests and profit above human lives and welfare. In response to these structural inequities, the report advocates for comprehensive reform: incorporating human rights impact evaluations into trade decisions, promoting South-South collaboration, and prioritizing trade justice over market liberalization. The epidemic signifies not merely a health problem but a moral reckoning that necessitates a redefined multilateralism based on solidarity, equity, and cooperation.

Keywords: WTO, Covid-19 Vaccine, Trips, Health, Human rights, TRIPS

1.        INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic has served as an unprecedented stress test for global institutions, exposing both their strengths and glaring weaknesses. Among these, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has faced significant scrutiny for its role or lack thereof in ensuring equitable access to life-saving technologies such as vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics. The pandemic underscored the interconnectedness of global health and trade, yet it also revealed structural inequities within theinternational trading system that disproportionately affected low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite its mandate to promote fairness in global trade, theWTO’s pandemic-era response has been criticized as inadequate, raising questions aboutitscommitmenttotheprinciplesofinternationalhumanrightsandglobaljustice. The WTO plays a critical role in regulating access to essential health technologies, particularly through its Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). However, during the COVID-19 crisis, the organization’s failure to implement timely and effective measures such as waiving intellectual property (IP) rights has been widely condemned. While high-income countries secured vast quantities of vaccines through bilateral agreements, LMICs were left with limited access, exacerbating global health disparities. The TRIPS waiver proposal, introduced by India and South Africa in October 2020, aimed to address these inequities by suspending certain IP protections temporarily. Yet, opposition from powerful WTO members stalled negotiations for over a year, delaying critical access to vaccines and therapeutics for vulnerable populations.[1] This paper seeks to examine whether the WTO’s pandemic response constitutes a breach of international human rights law and norms of global justice. Specifically, it investigates whether the organization’s actions or inactions violated the right to health as enshrined in Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). It also explores howthe WTO’s approach aligns with or diverges from principles of distributive justice in global governance.

The research adopts a doctrinal, normative, and critical methodology. A doctrinal analysis evaluates the legal obligations under international treaties such as the ICESCR and TRIPS Agreement. The normative approach assesses the ethical dimensions of the WTO’s policies through the lens of global justice theories. Finally,a critical perspective interrogates the structural inequalities embedded within multilateral institutions that prioritize economic hierarchies over moral accountability. As multilateralism faces increasing challenges from geopolitical tensions and economic nationalism.[2] This paper argues that “multilateralism without moral accountability becomes a tool of economic hierarchy rather than a mechanism of justice.” The critique highlights how the WTO’s pandemic-era failures reflect broader systemic issues within global governance structures that must be addressed to ensure equitable responses to future crises.[3]

[1] “Improving Access to COVID-19 Vaccines: An Analysis of TRIPS Waiver Discourse among WTO Members,CivilSociety Organizations,and PharmaceuticalIndustryStakeholders”(Health andHuman RightsJournal,December6,2022)<https://www.hhrjournal.org/2022/12/06/improving-access-to-covid-19-vaccines-an-analysis-of-trips-waiver-discourse-among-wto-members-civil-society- organizations-and-pharmaceutical-industry-stakeholders/> accessed April 8, 2025.

[2] Tom Bernes, “Challenges of Global Governance amid the COVID-19 Pandemic” Councilon Foreign Relations(May21,2020)<https://www.cfr.org/report/challenges-global-governance-amid-covid-19-

pandemic>accessedApril8,2025.

[3] DebreMJandDijkstraH,“COVID‐19and PolicyResponsesbyInternationalOrganizations:Crisisof LiberalInternationalOrderorWindowofOpportunity?”(2021)12GlobalPolicy443

<https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8441772/>accessedApril8,2025.