India has called for establishing a common global trade protocol for swift deployment of medicines and healthcare professionals to tackle the COVID-19 outbreak. The proposal was made by commerce minister Piyush Goyal in an emergency meeting of G-20 trade ministers, who discussed measures to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.
“...We need to think of a suitable framework under which critical pharma products, medical devices, diagnostic equipment and kits and healthcare professionals can be deployed at short notice across territories under a pre-agreed protocol,” Goyal told his G-20 counterparts on Monday in a meeting that was held through video-conferencing.
Goyal also called for relaxed global trade norms to facilitate swift deployment of essential resources that will be needed to tackle the outbreak. “Trade Facilitative responses need to be in place, and wherever required by doing away temporarily, the requirement by authorities like customs, banks of producing original documents by importers for various clearances,” Goyal said in the meeting.
He also reiterated India’s contribution in ensuring affordable pharmaceutical and healthcare across the globe. “We are confident that with improved regulatory and R&D cooperation, India can further enhance its capabilities to serve the world in crisis like this. We must ensure that suitable instruments stay in place to address these inabilities and preserve the life, livelihood, food and nutritional security of the poorest,” Goyal told the G-20 trade ministers.
The G-20 trade ministers resolved to ensure that people across the world have access to adequate and affordable supply of critical health and pharmaceutical products. The joint statement released after the meeting of G-20 trade ministers said, “We will support the availability and accessibility of essential medical supplies and pharmaceuticals at affordable prices, on an equitable basis, where they are most needed, and as quickly as possible, including by encouraging additional production through incentives and targeted investment, according to national circumstances. We will guard against profiteering and unjustified price increases."
The G-20 trade ministers also agreed to take targeted, proportionate, transparent, and temporary trade measures in the backdrop of the global pandemic, but at the same time ensure that such measures don’t create barriers to global trade. “We will implement those measures upholding the principle of international solidarity, considering the evolving needs of other countries for emergency supplies and humanitarian assistance,” the G-20 joint statement said.
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