Development and Challenges of Infectious Disease Control Measures in Trade Policy: Using COVID-19-related Medical Resources as a Case Study

Triggered by the global spread of COVID-19 (hereafter, “COVID-19 pandemic”), the relationship between international trade rules and infectious disease control measures with access to medicine that constitutes an element of such measures, has once again been tabled for discussion in domestic and foreign forums, and the appropriateness of conventional responses and future direction have come under review. A wide range of trade measures were adopted to secure medical products that contribute to COVID-19 diagnosis, treatment, and immune-boosting, ranging from export and import restrictions as well as bilateral trade that was criticized as “vaccine nationalism,” to free donations to other countries/regions or to multilateral international organizations such as the COVAX Facility (hereafter, “COVAX”), exemption from protection for some intellectual property rights related to medical products based on the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), and further, application for import of vaccines based on Article 31bis of the TRIPS Agreement. International organizations, including the World Trade Organization (WTO), are gathering and analyzing information on the various measures implemented at the national level and providing feedback on such measures, and at the same time, considering international rules such as the WTO Ministerial Conference decision on the exemption of the protection of COVID-19 vaccine-related patent rights, and World Health Organization (WHO)’s proposed convention on infectious disease control measures. This paper aims to shed light on the development and challenges of infectious disease control measures in trade systems through the COVID-19 pandemic.