E-drug: TACD Priorties and Doha p6 debate
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TACD is a coalition of 65 consumer groups in the US and Europe.
(http://www.tacd.org). This will be discussed in Brussels on Monday
with the EC and the US government. jamie
PRIORITIES FOR GOVERNMENT ACTION 2003-04
The EU and US consumer forum has selected the following issues as
its highest priorities for action in the trade arena by the US and EU
governments in 2003 and 2004.
[snip]
Access to Medicines
On November 14, 2001, the members of the WTO agreed by
consensus 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 for all." It was a remarkable moment for trade policy, but
also one that could be a meaningless historical footnote unless WTO
member countries find a way to give effect to the declaration.
A key outstanding issue concerns the WTO provisions that would
hobble compulsory licensing by imposing limits on exports, thus
denying producing countries the opportunity to achieve efficient
economies of scale, and denying importing countries the benefits of
comparative advantage and efficiency.
Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on TRIPS promised to address
the problems faced by countries that did not have the capacity to
produce pharmaceuticals. The 2002 paragraph 6 negotiations yielded
a proposed text that was flawed in many areas, but also was blocked
by the US.
The EU and US efforts to limit the beneficiary countries and to
impose burdensome procedural and substantive restrictions on the
paragraph 6 solution undermine the original declaration's promise to
protect public health in all WTO member countries, and the US�
demands that only some diseases be covered will place the health
and well-being of millions of people in jeopardy.
TACD supports solutions proposed by the European Parliament on
October 23, 2002, when it adopted Amendment 196, updating the EU
Directive 2001/83/EC relating to medicinal products for human use.
This would permit the export of medicines without the permission of
patent owners in those cases where the consuming country had
issued a compulsory license, or where public health authorities certify
there is no patent in place. The Amendment 196 approach is
consistent with the position endorsed by the World Health
Organization and also by a large number of public health and
development groups. If the United States does not agree to
consensus on paragraph 6 by the June 2003 TRIPS Council meeting,
the EU should encourage developing countries to adopt a TRIPS
Article 30 approach similar to the approach in Amendment 196, or to
adopt administrative mechanisms to authorize exports under Article
31.k of the TRIPS.
James Love
Director, Consumer Project on Technology
http://www.cptech.org, mailto:james.love@cptech.org
tel. +1.202.387.8030, mobile +1.202.361.3040
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