Why the World Trade Organization is Critical for Vaccine Supply Chain Resilience During a Pandemic
Cross-border supply chains and international trade played a critical role in vaccinating much of the world to address the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Considering that experience, this note describes the changes needed to make the World Trade O...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2022
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099729107152242689/IDU06d72d5f903e4a0451609104062276faf44df http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37760 |
| Summary: | Cross-border supply chains and
international trade played a critical role in vaccinating
much of the world to address the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic. Considering that experience, this note describes
the changes needed to make the World Trade Organization
(WTO) a more useful institution during such a public health
emergency. It begins by describing the market failures
confronting vaccines especially on the supply side, to
introduce the domestic subsidies and contracting
arrangements needed to accelerate vaccine research and
development, and to increase the scale and speed of vaccine
production during a pandemic. As an application, it relies
on illustrative examples of US subsidies that emerged during
COVID-19. However, the challenge confronting policymakers is
exacerbated in an environment characterized by cross-border
supply chains, making input shortage problems impacting
production even worse. Thus, the note highlights the need
for new forms of international policy coordination,
including initiatives on supply chain transparency, as well
as agreements to increase subsidies across countries to
jointly scale up vaccine output and input production
capacity along the entire supply chain. It concludes that
while the WTO was mostly absent this time around, it remains
the best-positioned international organization to facilitate
these novel forms of international economic policy cooperation. |
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