[Ip-health] Chirac on Doha negotiations

[James Love]

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/12/25/1040511090096.html


French drug plea to US

Wednesday 25 December 2002, 20:30PM

French President Jacques Chirac urged "all countries, and in particular
the United States" to display a spirit of generosity and compromise to
ensure that poor nations have access to life-saving drugs.

Chirac also deplored the failure of WTO talks in Geneva last week to reach
an agreement to allow impoverished countries without pharmaceutical
industries of their own to import cheaper generic copies of patented drugs
to combat illnesses such as AIDS or malaria.

The French leader, according to a source in his office, "calls on all
countries, and in particular the United States, to show a spirit of
generosity and necessary compromise when talks resume early next year and
to accept without delay a text that conforms to the Doha mandate."

World Trade Organisation ministers meeting in the Qatari capital Doha in
November 2001 launched a new round of global trade liberalisation talks,
which got under way this year.

At the same time they agreed in principle that the public health needs of
poor countries battling epidemics should take precedence over patent
rights held by big pharmaceutical companies.

But left unresolved was the situation of poor countries lacking
pharmaceutical companies capable of producing medicines. They have sought
the right to import generic drugs and it was in Geneva last week that
representatives from WTO members gathered to work out a deal relaxing
global patent rules to authorise such imports.

The Geneva talks broke off early last Saturday after the United States
refused to go along with a draft declaration. WTO members agreed to resume
negotiations early next year and the WTO's ruling General Council is
scheduled to take up the question on February 10 and 11.

US representatives in Geneva held out for more specific wording in the
draft statement, which in its current form would apply to "public health
problems... especially those resulting from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis,
malaria and other epidemics."

Washington feared that the formulation could allow drugs for
non-infectious illnesses such as diabetes or asthma to be included under
the new export regulations.

The expanded focus in the draft text, according to the United States,
could allow wealthy countries to override a broad range of drug patents on
such products as Viagra.
=A92002 AFP
--
James Love
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