A top U.S. trade official said Thursday the Biden administration remains committed to easing of rules that protect the technology behind coronavirus vaccines so that they can be produced more widely.

But Ambassador Katherine Tai insisted that "we cannot will something into being" in negotiations on the issue at the World Trade Organization because any such move requires all its member states to come on board.

Tai, the U.S. trade representative, acknowledged that some outside the talks might perceive the U.S. to have maintained "silence" on the issue in recent months. That was after Washington took a stance in May in favor of a waiver of intellectual property rules at the WTO when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines to help boost production around the world.

But she insisted work was continuing behind the scenes.

"This may be the case of the duck on the pond, where from the outside you think that the duck is just sitting there hanging out, but underneath the surface the duck's legs are going very, very fast." Tai said at a talk at Geneva's Graduate Institute.

She said the United States and many other countries want to see increased production of vaccines and more equitable access to them. The waiver on COVID-19 vaccines is "something we remain dedicated to," she said, while noting that the WTO operates by consensus meaning all 164 member states must agree.

"While we are making progress collectively, there is still a lot more progress that we need to make," she said.

A Geneva-based trade official said a closed-door meeting of the WTO's TRIPS Council on Wednesday produced "points of convergence" when it comes to a possible response to the pandemic through intellectual property tools.

The council chair, Ambassador Dagfinn Sorli of Norway, said he would aim to use the opportunity to advance toward a consensus when trade ministers from WTO member states meet from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3.

(With input from agencies)