Eliminating trade barriers is essential to the task of containing the COVID-19 pandemic and minimizing its human and economic costs. Yet dozens of governments have imposed restrictions on exports, and others appear to be taking steps toward “repatriating” medical supply chains to achieve self‐​sufficiency in critical items. These actions are compounding a time‐​to‐​market problem caused by preexisting policies such as tariffs on medical goods, divergences between governments in regulatory requirements, and rigid intellectual property protections of medicines and devices.

Please join us for a conversation and learn how the strategic stockpiling of medical supplies, the World Trade Organization and other international bodies, the easing of regulatory restrictions through mutual recognition, and fresh approaches to encouraging medical innovation can all play important roles in the effort to rein in the crisis.