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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Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Bown, Chad P.
Format:	Report
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2022
Subjects:	VACCINE OUTPUT WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) PANDEMIC PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY VACCINE SUPPLY VACCINE SHORTAGE VACCINE SUBSIDIES MEDICAL TRADE POLICY ECONOMIC POLICY COOPERATION SUPPLY CHAIN
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099729107152242689/IDU06d72d5f903e4a0451609104062276faf44df http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37760

id	okr-10986-37760
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-377602022-07-27T05:10:50Z Why the World Trade Organization is Critical for Vaccine Supply Chain Resilience During a Pandemic Bown, Chad P. VACCINE OUTPUT WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) PANDEMIC PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY VACCINE SUPPLY VACCINE SHORTAGE VACCINE SUBSIDIES MEDICAL TRADE POLICY ECONOMIC POLICY COOPERATION SUPPLY CHAIN 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. 2022-07-26T13:46:21Z 2022-07-26T13:46:21Z 2022-05 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099729107152242689/IDU06d72d5f903e4a0451609104062276faf44df http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37760 English Equitable Growth, Finance & Institutions Institutions Insight; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Foreign Trade, FDI, and Capital Flows Study Economic & Sector Work :: Other ESW Reports
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	VACCINE OUTPUT WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) PANDEMIC PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY VACCINE SUPPLY VACCINE SHORTAGE VACCINE SUBSIDIES MEDICAL TRADE POLICY ECONOMIC POLICY COOPERATION SUPPLY CHAIN
spellingShingle	VACCINE OUTPUT WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) PANDEMIC PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY VACCINE SUPPLY VACCINE SHORTAGE VACCINE SUBSIDIES MEDICAL TRADE POLICY ECONOMIC POLICY COOPERATION SUPPLY CHAIN Bown, Chad P. Why the World Trade Organization is Critical for Vaccine Supply Chain Resilience During a Pandemic
relation	Equitable Growth, Finance & Institutions Institutions Insight;
description	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.
format	Report
author	Bown, Chad P.
author_facet	Bown, Chad P.
author_sort	Bown, Chad P.
title	Why the World Trade Organization is Critical for Vaccine Supply Chain Resilience During a Pandemic
title_short	Why the World Trade Organization is Critical for Vaccine Supply Chain Resilience During a Pandemic
title_full	Why the World Trade Organization is Critical for Vaccine Supply Chain Resilience During a Pandemic
title_fullStr	Why the World Trade Organization is Critical for Vaccine Supply Chain Resilience During a Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed	Why the World Trade Organization is Critical for Vaccine Supply Chain Resilience During a Pandemic
title_sort	why the world trade organization is critical for vaccine supply chain resilience during a pandemic
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2022
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099729107152242689/IDU06d72d5f903e4a0451609104062276faf44df http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37760
_version_	1764487855056355328

Why the World Trade Organization is Critical for Vaccine Supply Chain Resilience During a Pandemic

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