Amid increasing concern over shortages of medical products, a new study recommends that the United States consider an international treaty that would prohibit countries from banning exports as one way to bolster the critical — but sometimes unreliable — supply chain.
Specifically, the federal government is being urged to consider a multilateral arrangement among countries that are major exporters of products and components such as pharmaceutical ingredients or glass vials to prevent shortages from developing or worsening. And any treaty should be administered by the World Trade Organization and have the capacity to impose sanctions if needed.
“Although such an agreement cannot prevent a worldwide shortage from occurring, it can limit the risk to any individual country by ‘spreading the pain’ across the global economy,” wrote a team of experts in a report released this week by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). By doing so, the hope is to build what the report calls “collective trust” in the global supply chain.
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