USTR out-of-cycle review of South Africa, cites SA advocacy of public health positions as threat to US trade interests

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

This is the April 30, 1999


http://www.ustr.gov/releases/1999/04/99-41.html


South Africa: South Africa's Medicines Act appears to grant the Health
Minister ill defined authority to issue compulsory licenses,
authorize parallel imports, and potentially otherwise abrogate patent
rights. Implementation of the law has been suspended pending the
resolution of a constitutional challenge in the South African courts.
Undisclosed test data is also not adequately protected under South
African law. During the past year, South African representatives have
led a faction of nation's in the World Health Organization (WHO) in
calling for a reduction in the level of protection provided for
pharmaceuticals in TRIPS. Copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting
is widespread and the U.S. copyright industry estimates that trade
losses due to piracy of copyrighted works increased more than 35
percent between 1997 and 1998. However, the South African Government
recently took the welcome step of adopting a implementing strategy
to its 1997 Counterfeit Goods Act which could strengthen enforcement. We
call on the Government of South Africa to bring its IPR regime
into full compliance with TRIPS before the January 1, 2000 deadline,
ensure that all Government offices use only legitimate software, and
clarify that the powers granted in the Medicines Act are consistent with
its international obligations and will not be used to weaken or
abrogate pharmaceutical patent protection. We will continue to address
these issues with the South African Government and will conduct an
out-of-cycle review of South Africa's progress towards addressing these
concerns in September 1999.

-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
I can be reached at love@cptech.org, by telephone 202.387.8030,
by fax at 202.234.5176. CPT web page is http://www.cptech.org