The World Trade Organization chief on Thursday hailed US Trade Representative Katherine Tai's announcement that Washington supports a temporary global waiver on patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines as the pandemic rages. "I warmly welcome her willingness to engage with proponents of a temporary waiver of the TRIPS agreement to help in combating the Covid-19, pandemic," Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in a statement, read to reporters by her spokesman Keith Rockwell. vog/nl/rjm/har