Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague opposite from Edmonton Strathcona for this opportunity to deliver my first remarks as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development.
The Government of Canada is committed to a comprehensive global response to COVID-19 that leverages the entire multilateral system in supporting the research, development, manufacture and distribution of safe and effective COVID-19 diagnostics, equipment, therapeutics and vaccines.
With respect to the proposed COVID-19-related waiver from certain provisions of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, TRIPS, Canada has not rejected the proposed waiver and is working with an range of WTO members to seek to understand the specific nature and scope of any concrete intellectual property, challenges experienced by WTO members related to or arriving from the TRIPS agreement such that concrete and census-based solutions can be found.
Canada also continues to engage WTO members on the use of existing public health flexibilities under the TRIPS agreement and as affirmed by the Doha declaration on the TRIPS agreement and public health and continues to share its own experiences in this area.
As the Doha declaration emphasizes, the TRIPS agreement is part of the wider national and international effort to address public health problems. In addition to ongoing discussions on the waiver, Canada is actively engaged in the work of the WTO Ottawa Group on the trade and health initiative, which aims to strengthen global supply chains and support the delivery of essential medicines and medical supplies around the world.
Canada is highly supportive of the access to COVID-19 tools accelerator and its vaccine's pillar, the COVAX facility. In parallel to the ongoing TRIPS waiver discussions, Canada has also encouraged the WTO director-general's efforts to enhance the WTO's role in dialogue with the pharmaceutical sector toward accelerating the production and distribution of affordable, safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines and other medical products in coordination with the World Health Organization and other relevant organizations.
The Government of Canada remains actively committed to a robust, multi-faceted and global effort to address the pandemic that draws upon all the necessary resources and tools available in the international rules-based trading framework as well as new mechanisms for global co-operation on the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines and other medicinal products.
As equitable, timely and affordable access to testing treatments and vaccines will be critical for controlling and ending this pandemic, Canada looks forward to continued engagement with all members of the international community to find solutions to these global challenges.