The flag of China flies outside the Chinese Consulate Wednesday, July 22, 2020, in Houston. The U.S. says it has ordered China to close its consulate in Houston “to protect American intellectual property” and the private information of Americans. China is strongly condemning the move, which comes at a time of rising tensions between the world’s two largest economies. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)AP
This is a guest opinion column
Alabama manufacturers have weathered one pandemic-induced crisis after another in the past few years — from supply chain snafus, to inflation, to worker shortages. And now, another looms on the horizon.
Biden administration officials are refusing to strike down a proposal at the World Trade Organization that could forever impact the future of Alabama manufacturing. The WTO proposal would waive intellectual property protections for Covid-19 therapeutics and diagnostics. It comes on the heels of a similar waiver for Covid-19 vaccines, which was supported by the Biden administration and ratified by WTO members in 2022. The Covid-19 vaccine waiver did not result in the production of a single vaccine.
Countless experts have indicated that these waivers won’t do anything to achieve their stated — and well-intentioned — aim of broadening the developing world’s access to medicines, considering there is no evidence that shortages of Covid-19 vaccines, tests, or treatments even exist. But they will give American technologies away to our rivals. And American jobs will go with them.
Luckily, the WTO failed to agree on the waiver at its annual meeting in Abu Dhabi earlier this year. But until the Biden administration exercises its authority to permanently end this debate, there’s a real chance that the WTO could eventually approve the proposal.
Right now, intellectual property protections prevent nations like China from copying hard-won American innovations. If those protections are waived for Covid-19 tests and treatments, any Chinese company could simply help itself to American intellectual property.
The highly skilled pharmaceutical manufacturing jobs necessary to develop those technologies — like the roughly 1,300 right here in Alabama — will go to Chinese workers instead of American ones.
And the impact of the waiver will extend far beyond the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. Strong intellectual property protections currently underpin many of the products Alabama manufacturers make, from vehicle parts to metals.
The United States’ willingness to sign onto IP waivers puts all of our businesses in jeopardy. Right now, the proposed IP waiver may only apply to Covid-19 tests and treatments. But there’s nothing stopping WTO members from pushing for IP waivers on other high-tech products the next time a global emergency inevitably rolls around. Indeed, proponents of the waiver are now calling for similar action for green technologies.
This uncertainty will force innovators and their financial backers to make more careful investment decisions, particularly in high-tech sectors. Innovation in those areas will decline.
That’ll only help China in its quest for technological dominance over the United States. Beijing is already surpassing us in the development of semiconductor, battery, and certain defense technologies. We cannot risk handing them an even further lead, which would undoubtedly take more manufacturing jobs away from Americans.
That’d be particularly bad for Alabama. Over 276,000 state residents are employed by manufacturing companies. In some counties, like Greene, Choctaw, and Lowndes, the share of Alabamans employed in manufacturing is more than three and a half times the national average of 8%.
If their jobs disappear, so too will the multi-billion-dollar economic boost the state receives from the manufacturing industry. Manufacturing contributed more than $38 billion to the state’s economy in 2022 — more than any other sector.
A proposal to waive the intellectual property rights that drive Alabama job creation is no way to level the playing field. Our community must call on Alabama’s representatives in Congress to ensure that the Biden administration explicitly opposes this dangerous policy.
Intellectual property and manufacturing have an inseparable link. To protect one, we must protect the other — and the time to do so is now.
Jim Byard, Jr., is the founder of Byard Associates, LLC. He served three terms as mayor of Prattville and almost seven years as Director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA).
