US President Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday announced its support for a global waiver on patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines, and will negotiate the terms at the WTO. While intellectual property rights for businesses are important, Washington "supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines," US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement. "This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures," she added. hs/cs