PPI - Radically Pragmatic
  • Donate
Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Locations
    • Careers
  • People
  • Projects
  • Our Work
  • Events
  • Donate

Our Work

Intellectual Property: U.S. Interests, Emergencies, and the WTO’S TRIPS Waiver for COVID-19 Vaccines

  • June 6, 2023
  • Ed Gresser
Download PDF

Testimony from Edward Gresser
House Judiciary Committee
Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet

June 6, 2023

 

Mr. Chairman and Mr. Ranking Member,

Thank you very much for inviting me to testify at this morning’s hearing on intellectual property, innovation, and the U.S. competition with China, focused on the World Trade Organization and its decision on waiver of patent obligations for COVID-19 vaccines and potentially for “diagnostics and therapeutics” related to COVID-19.

By way of introduction, I am Vice President of the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) here in Washington, D.C., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research institution established in 1989 and publishing in a wide range of public policy topics. Before joining PPI, I served at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative from 2015 to 2021 as Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Policy and Economics, with responsibility for overseeing USTR’s economic research and use of trade data, chairing the interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee, and administering the Generalized System of Preferences. This period coincided with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019 and extended through the initial WTO discussions on a temporary waiver of some elements of the 1994 TRIPS agreement relating to COVID vaccines.

The hearing poses some important questions. Specifically, how does the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) relate to U.S. interests in innovation and technological progress? Was the Biden administration correct to support a waiver of some of the TRIPS patent provisions for COVID-19 vaccines? Will this be to the advantage of China vis-à-vis the United States? I can summarize my view of this in four points.

READ THE FULL TESTIMONY HERE.

Related Work

Trade Fact  |  July 16, 2025

The world child labor count has gone down by more than 100 million since 2000

  • Ed Gresser
Trade Fact  |  July 9, 2025

Tariffs are taxes paid by Americans

  • Ed Gresser
Trade Fact  |  July 2, 2025

The U.S. Needs 8,000 Tons of Cobalt a Year, and Produces 300 Tons

  • Ed Gresser
Trade Fact  |  June 25, 2025

80% of American hourly-wage workers are in ‘services’

  • Ed Gresser
Trade Fact  |  June 18, 2025

One U.S. measles death from 2000 to 2024; three so far this year

  • Ed Gresser
Trade Fact  |  June 11, 2025

U.S. earnings from international student tuition above those for gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, and gems

  • Ed Gresser
  • Never miss an update:

  • Subscribe to our newsletter
PPI Logo
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Donate
  • Careers
  • © 2025 Progressive Policy Institute. All Rights Reserved.
  • |
  • Privacy Policy
  • |
  • Privacy Settings