The WTO faces a make or break week over vaccines by Larry Elliott https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/12/the-wto-faces-a-make-or-break-week-over-vaccines
Richer countries make all the right noises about the need to share the benefits of the breakthroughs made to fight Covid-19, but in practice they have been dragging their heels in talks for the past two years. Switzerland, the EU, the UK and the US – all of which have strong and powerful pharmaceutical sectors – have tried to make any waiver to TRIPS (trade related intellectual property rights) as weak and as time-limited as possible.
Meetings where there is a lot on the agenda and much that divides the various parties are prone to collapse. And there are plenty of other contentious issues – agriculture, fisheries, e-commerce and the mechanism for dealing with trade disputes – in addition to intellectual property rights.
Developed western countries have controlled the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund since they were founded at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944. The decision-making machinery does not reflect the global economy in its current form, but the stranglehold of the US and its western allies means decisions can be taken.
The WTO is designed to be different. Decisions are taken on the basis of unanimity so in principle one small country can block progress. In practice this never happens, but even so the governance system makes it harder for rich western governments to bulldoze their proposals through.