da ip-watch
21/3/2005
Talks On TRIPS and Health Stall As Deadline Nears
Filed under:
* Health
* Trade
by William New @ 6:08 pm
Negotiations to expand the availability of medicines under a World Trade
Organisation agreement on intellectual property rights by 31 March broke
down Monday after informal consultations showed no compromise forthcoming,
according to diplomatic sources in Geneva.
At issue is an amendment of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to allow countries producing generic
pharmaceuticals under compulsory license to export those products to other
countries in need. Failure to resolve differences on the issue could have
a negative impact on the outcome of the December WTO ministerial in Hong
Kong, Kenya reportedly said in the consultations.
After parties failed to budge from their positions at Monday’s informal
consultations on TRIPS and public health, TRIPS Council Chair Tony Miller
of Hong Kong dropped plans to reconvene a suspended council meeting on the
issue before a 31 March deadline, according to sources. That deadline set
in June 2004 (which was the previous deadline) was the point at which
members were to amend the TRIPS agreement to formalize a waiver of a TRIPS
provision prohibiting the export of products produced under compulsory
license. The waiver was agreed to on 30 August 2003, and the change is
seen as consistent with the 2001 Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public
Health.
Miller said he would check in with members on 29 March to see if further
consultations are desired for 30-31 March. The formal meeting could be
reconvened if there is a prospect of consensus, sources said.
Monday’s consultation, which was attended by about 40 delegates, followed
the suspended formal TRIPS Council meeting held on 8-9 March.
At the Monday meeting, no progress was seen on the provisions of the
amendment, how the amendment would be made, or how the chair’s statement
read out at the time of the waiver should be reflected, according to
sources. Parties could not agree whether the amendment should be made by
adding to TRIPS Article 31 (on uses without authorisation of the rights
holder), or by putting the waiver in an annex and referring to it in the
text or in a footnote in the body of the agreement.
Kenya argued that the African members’ proposal for an amendment is a
direct translation of the 30 August 2003 waiver, with some small,
technical differences, including deletions of redundant pieces. The
Philippines said the African proposal is an accurate reflection of the 30
August decision, but added that the question of limiting the amendment to
technical changes is debatable.
But Switzerland and the United States said their fears that countries want
to renegotiate provisions of the waiver were confirmed. They do not want
any weakening of safeguards preventing the diversion of medicines to
inappropriate markets. The two countries along with the European Union
said they could agree to some deletions of truly redundant parts of the
text.
Monday’s discussion included a debate over the “life and death” urgency of
the issue for many countries whose populations are in critical need, and
the possible immorality of delaying agreement on the amendment.
Switzerland countered the charge of lost morality, arguing that members
agreed to the waiver and are amending their laws and regulations to allow
its implementation, a source said.
Besides the late March consultation, the next formal meetings of the
council are tentatively scheduled for 14-15 June and 25-26 October.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. All of the news
articles and features on Intellectual Property Watch are also subject to a
Creative Commons License which makes them available for widescale, free,
non-commercial reproduction and translation.
William New, the author of this post, may be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
www.e-laser.org
Laser@inventati.org
