Staff of Reuters 3 minutes ReadFILE PHOTO: Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) talks at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, D.C., on June 22, 2018, during a news conference on the Trump Administration’s tax cuts. Jordan, courtesy of Reuters/Toya Sarno (Reuters) – WASHINGTON (Reuters) – On Monday, nine Democratic members of Congress in the United States requested Germany to end its “blockade” of a COVID-19-related waiver of intellectual property rights under global trade laws, and invited Chancellor Angela Merkel to meet with them during her visit to Washington. Representative Jan Schakowsky, a member of the Democratic House leadership, Representative Earl Blumenauer, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee’s trade subcommittee, and other lawmakers expressed concern that Germany was leading EU opposition to a proposed waiver being discussed at the World Trade Organization. “The United States and practically every other WTO member seeks to enact a COVID emergency temporary TRIPS waiver as soon as possible,” they wrote to German Ambassador Emily Haber in a letter, saying that COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing must be expanded to save millions of lives. “Due to IP obstacles, the only licensed COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are held by U.S. and German corporations, who have the monopolistic authority to decide whether this scale-up will take place,” they stated. The German embassy did not respond to a request for comment right away. Officials in the Biden administration claim that the waiver will assist expand global coronavirus vaccine production. German politicians and pharmaceutical corporations have argued that companies spent their own money to produce vaccines, and that giving up their intellectual property rights would jeopardize future research. A senior administration official said on Monday that Merkel will meet with President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday for a wide-ranging discussion that will include the global response to the pandemic and the proposed waiver of IP rights. The president is a “big proponent” of the waiver, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, but it is simply one of several instruments that might be used to raise COVID-19 vaccination rates around the world. During Merkel’s visit to Washington, supporters of the waiver plan a “die-in” near the White House and a big Merkel puppet on Thursday, according to organizers. Andrea Shalal contributed reporting. Gerry Doyle did the editing./n
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