By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters).-The World Trade Organization’s first meeting to consider a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights regarding COVID-19 vaccinations ended “very well”, according to its chair on Friday.

On Friday, WTO’s 164 members discussed the “outcome paper” that arose from long-running negotiations among the major parties, India, South Africa, and the European Union. This was done in order to end an 18-month-old deadlock.

“It went very smoothly and here’s what I mean. After the meeting, Ambassador Lansana from Sierra Leone who is the chair of the council charged with finding an agreement regarding the waiver said that no member had rejected it as unacceptable.

Most people believed that this text could be made into a negotiation text, and that is the path we must follow.”.

Two Geneva-based trade sources reported that delegations thought the proposal fell short because it was too focused only on vaccines.

China supported the document in large part, however it objected to certain wording. This was due to its share of global vaccine exports. According to two trade sources.

A request for comment was not received by the WTO mission at Geneva.

A majority of global trade bodies members support the waiver proposal, which was first proposed in October 2020 by South Africa and India.

However, some rich countries such as Britain and Switzerland raised concerns in the past about it posing a threat to pharmaceutical research.

Ngozi Okonjo–Iweala, Director General of WTO, was involved in the brokering of the negotiations and believes that an agreement is “hugely significant”.

If there are unresolved issues, the new deal must be approved by consensus. Any member can also veto it.

According to one delegate, Friday’s meeting marked the point when the deal “floats or sinks”.

Some delegates privately stated that the lack of support from the public for the agreement by the major negotiating parties had eroded confidence in other members.