E-drug: (sign on:) letter on WTO, para 6 negotiations
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[please reply to asia@critpath.org (Asia Russell) NOT to e-drug]
Dear Friends,
There are crucial negotiations happening at the World Trade Organization
(WTO) this week regarding the TRIPS Agreement, public health, and access to
medicines and your help is urgently needed.
Despite having made a promise last year at the 4th WTO Ministerial
Conference in Doha, Qatar, to uphold the right of countries to protect
public health and promote access to medicines for all, the United States
Trade Representative (USTR)--with the support of the pharmaceutical
industry--is now leading the effort to push through a disastrous "solution"
to the problems developing countries face in making use of provisions in
the TRIPS Agreement that allow for the production and export of affordable
essential medicines. The U.S. negotiating proposals are so narrow and so
restrictive as to be worse than having no solution at all.
Because the WTO is charged with solving this problem by the end of 2002,
the last two weeks of the year will include intense pressure from the USTR
and from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. Your help is needed to secure a
solution at the WTO that meets the needs of poor people who are suffering
and dying without access to medicines.
We need your help to send a message to the USTR that organizations in the
United States don't support their negotiating position.
We urge you to review the letter below and then provide your organizational
endorsement.
Please give us your:
Organization name
Organization location (City, State)
email your endorsements to: asia@critpath.org (Asia Russell)
The deadline for endorsement is: 5 PM EST [USA] Thursday, December 19.
Additional information about this issue is available at:
http://www.cptech.org/ip/wto/p6/
http://www.accessmed-msf.org/index.asp
http://www.healthgap.org/camp/trade.html
Sincerely,
Rachel M. Cohen
Doctors Without Borders/M�decins Sans Fronti�res (MSF)
New York, NY
Asia Russell
Health GAP
Philadelphia, PA
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The Honorable Robert B. Zoellick
United States Trade Representative
600 17th St., N.W.
Washington D.C., 20508
Re: WTO negotiations on public health and TRIPS
Dear Ambassador Zoellick,
We, the undersigned, are gravely concerned by the current status of World
Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations on paragraph 6 of the Ministerial
Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health ('Doha Declaration'),
related to the production and export of essential medicines.
We are concerned in particular by the position of the U.S. delegation, as we
feel it is inconsistent with the commitment the U.S. made, along with all
other members of the WTO, when it adopted the Doha Declaration just
over one year ago. U.S. negotiators are pressuring members of the
WTO to agree to a narrow and burdensome solution that in practice
would be worse than no solution at all.
The WTO was charged with producing a solution to the problem expressed in
paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration, which states that:
"6. We recognize that WTO Members with insufficient or no manufacturing
capacities in the pharmaceutical sector could face difficulties in making
effective use of compulsory licensing under the TRIPS Agreement. We
instruct the Council for TRIPS to find an expeditious solution to this
problem and to report to the General Council before the end of 2002."
These negotiations should be guided by the needs and interests of poor
people who are suffering without access to medicines, and by the Doha
Declaration itself, which states that the TRIPS Agreement 'can and should be
interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of WTO Members'
right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access
to medicines forall.'
The following are the fundamental components of a solution that would
uphold that right:
1. No restrictions on diseases
A workable solution must not be restricted to medicines used in the
treatment of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. While there is no doubt that
these epidemics are ravaging developing countries, they cannot be
considered the sole public health threats in poor regions--either now
or in the future. Furthermore, the WTO is not the appropriate forum
for determining sovereign countries' public health priorities and
needs.
2. No exclusion of vaccines and other medical technologies
Vaccines, diagnostics, and monitoring tests are important medical
technologies for developing countries. They should not be excluded from any
solution.
3. No restriction of beneficiary countries
While sub-Saharan Africa is in particularly acute need of increased access
to medicines, it should not be the only region to benefit from a solution.
Arbitrary restrictions based on economic criteria are unnecessary and will
only serve to undermine efforts to protect public health.
4. No overly burdensome "safeguards"
Low-cost medicines intended for consumption in poor countries should
not be diverted to wealthy country markets. However, any system of
safeguarding against such diversion should not put too heavy a burden
on developing countries, and should not be so burdensome as to
counter to the goal of the system itself to broaden access to
affordable medicines.
5. The mechanism must be workable and must not include overly
burdensome procedural requirements
A mechanism that will require, for example, multiple compulsory licenses,
long delays, and substantial administrative burden will only perpetuate
distortions in WTO intellectual property rules, rather than creating a fair
system where the potential public health benefits of compulsory licensing of
medicines can be enjoyed by all WTO Members.
We support the position of the World Health Organization, as stated during
the WTO Council on TRIPS (September 17, 2002) that a limited
exception under Article 30 is the most consistent with the public
health principle stated in the Doha Declaration. An Article 30
solution will give WTO Members expeditious authorization, as
requested by the Doha Declaration, to permit suppliers to export
medicines for unmet public health needs to
an importing country issuing a compulsory license for that product or to a
country where no competing patent is on file.
We call on you to uphold the promises you made in Doha, abandon efforts to
restrict the scope of the solution to the problem outlined in paragraph 6 of
the Doha Declaration, and to accept the recommendations above as
fundamental elements of any solution you agree to. This is a matter
of life and death for millions of people in need of access to
medicines throughout the world.
Sincerely,
--
Asia Russell
ACT UP Philadelphia
Health GAP
asia@critpath.org
1 215 474 9329 office
1 267 475 2645 mobile
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