Joint statement by WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

COVID-19 has rapidly progressed to become a global pandemic, causing unprecedented, far-reaching impact on the health, social and economic well-being of communities around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) and World Trade Organization (WTO) are committed to responding effectively to the situation, working together with other international organizations and our respective memberships. Global, coordinated action is required to deal with the extraordinary challenges the pandemic poses to people’s health as well as their livelihoods. Protecting lives is our top priority, and these efforts can be impeded by unnecessary disruptions to global trade and supply chains. Governments’ trade policy decisions significantly influence both getting medical equipment and supplies to where they are urgently needed and catalyzing the supply of critical inputs for the production of medicines and health technologies to fight the pandemic. Keeping trade in health technologies as open and predictable as possible is therefore of vital interest. This will help countries to respond to this crisis, to recover from it and to build the health systems that will foster greater resilience in the future. WHO and WTO are working together to support efforts to ensure the normal cross-border flow of vital medical supplies and other goods and services, promoting them where possible, and to resolve unnecessary disruptions to global supply chains, in furtherance of the International Health Regulations (2005) and WTO rules. The purpose of the International Health Regulations is to prevent, protect against, control and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease in ways that are commensurate with public health risks, with a view to minimizing interference with international traffic and trade. WTO rules provide governments with the flexibilities they may need to address essential medical supply shortages and/or public health challenges. But any measure taken to pro...