Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
My thanks also to all the witnesses for joining us today. You have my apologies for the limited time at our disposal.
Mr. Benhmade, I would like to go back to your comments, however, in order to clarify one point. Canada has never rejected the proposal to waive intellectual property rights.
As you know, WTO decisions are normally made by consensus. So a consensus is needed. As you said, about 100 countries are in favour, but we still need everyone to be on the same wavelength. That is why we asked questions and encouraged the parties to give the matter more thought. I believe we received a text on May 21 or 25. That was just a few days ago. Canada's representatives have said that they would be working on the text and that all countries would move forward together on this issue.
However, you have also heard testimony from other witnesses who have appeared before the committee and a number of other experts, who have said that intellectual property is not the only obstacle to vaccination moving forward. These vaccines contain more than 100 ingredients. So there are also problems in the supply chain.
What do you think of those other problems? How could we address them in order to get things moving forward? Would that be done at the WTO or otherwise?
Because time is short, I might also ask Amnesty International to comment a little on what they are seeing on the ground, and perhaps Doctors Without Borders as well. What else is missing, other than the actual COVID-19 vaccines? Are we in need of needles or other materials in order to make sure that everybody around the world has access to a COVID-19 vaccine?
Mr. Benhmade, please go ahead.