Mbeki's comments at Sept 20, 1999 UN press conference

[thiru balasubramaniam <thiru@cptech.org>]

http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/1999/19990920.safrica.html

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA 

19990920 

At a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon, President Thabo Mbeki
of South Africa said his country would pursue with others the need to
restructure the United Nations. 

   [snip]

Returning to the subject of the controversy over the prices of United
States pharmaceuticals and drugs, a correspondent said "there is word
that you (i.e., the South African Government) have reached or are about
to reach an agreement with the United States on compliance with the
World Trade Organization, allowing for compulsory licensing and parallel
importing of specific AIDS drugs". The correspondent then posed the
following questions: Would the agreement allow for those? Had the South
African Government asked the United States Government to allow it rights
to patents the United States controlled? Did he expect the
pharmaceutical companies to withdraw the suit that they had currently
suspended? Would the agreement allow for adequate access to those drugs,
and others? 

President Mbeki said the South African legislation was not in violation
of World Trade Organization rules regarding intellectual property
rights.  His Government had insisted on that from the beginning. The
issue therefore had nothing to do with permission being granted one way
or the other by anybody. There had been a debate about the matter, with
the pharmaceutical companies taking the opposite position. The
fundamental question that had to be addressed was the issue of
affordable medicine, the President said. "If a patented drug is on sale
in the United States for 50 cents and is on sale in South Africa for 2
dollars, we will buy it in the United States, patented and packaged as
it is. We will not compromise ourselves on the trademark." 

There had been an understanding that the South African Government indeed
had a commitment not to violate World Trade Organization rules,
he said. That had been the intention from the beginning and that was why
the matter had not reached the World Trade Organization. His
Government had no intention of violating anybody's intellectual property
rights. 

  [snip]

-- 
Thiru Balasubramaniam
thiru@cptech.org
http://www.cptech.org/thiru