WTO Vaccine Deal Looks Long on Good Intent, Short on Support

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general of the World Trade Organization.

Photographer: Andressa Anholete/Bloomberg

In trade negotiations, sometimes the sign of a good compromise is that nobody is entirely happy with the deal.

By that standard last month’s World Trade Organization agreement to waive intellectual-property protections for Covid-19 vaccines is the deal of the century.