[Ip-health] Zoellick press conference transcript

[Mike Palmedo]

Long document, so I clipped the questions and answers on Paragraph 6
negotiations, and on funding the fund.

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Media Round Table with USTR Robert B. Zoellick
Sheraton Hotel, Pretoria, South Africa
January 13, 2002

<snip>

Q: Business Day, John Fraser: You will be well aware that on the 20th
of December the World Trade Organization negotiations on TRIPS failed.
The United States put out a unilateral statement. More recently the
European Union has put its suggestion. What's your reaction to
(unclear)?

Zoellick: Well, let me go back a step because the inability to reach a
conclusion in December was as deeply disappointing to us as it was to
others. For those of you who may not have followed this in quite the
same detail, people will recall that at Doha in November 2001 we
reached a very important agreement about access to medicines, drawing
on the flexibility of the TRIPS (intellectual property regime). And in
essence it allowed countries to compulsory license in certain
circumstances. Now the left over question=97this was the one
question=97what happens if countries are too poor or too small to be
able to compulsory license in their own country so they need to go to
third countries? And frankly I think there are some insights for
Africa here. Because as we started this process we were keenly
interested in trying to make sure that sub-Saharan African countries
were able to get what they needed in terms of either the ability to
produce the pharmaceuticals or to export to one another. And at the
urging of the Kenyans and some others, we supported some regional
compacts that would make it easier to do.

But what one learns in international negotiations is even though this
was designed for countries =96 this last issue was designed for
countries -- that didn't have the capacity to produce pharmaceuticals
on their own, all of a sudden everyone else wants to get it too. Okay?
So, Brazil and India and people who frankly may not have Africa's best
interests at heart decide, well, we need to be able to get this.

And then the second issue... So what started out as supposed to be a
small needy category becomes everybody but the OECD countries. And
then secondly, the category of diseases starts to expand to include
obesity, Viagra and pretty soon you start to run into the problem that
[what] was supposed to be a narrow circumstance to deal with emergency
needs becomes every possible pharmaceutical for almost every country
and that then what have you done to intellectual property system?

So, we were as regretful as anyone that we couldn't that. Much of the
pharmaceutical research in the world occurs in the United States and
we have a particular sensitivity because if you undermine the
intellectual property rights system you aren't going to have people
developing these drugs. It is just the way, the reality. Now, I know
from some conversations with some of the South Africans in particular,
you are developing a pharmaceutical industry and there is some
interest here to actually not blow a hole in the intellectual property
system. So that brought us to the moratorium you mentioned.

The reason we did that was because frankly we had made a pledge at
Doha to deal with this problem. And we felt that if we couldn't deal
with it with all countries we would at least be willing to say that
for not only HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis but we had a definition
of infectious diseases of comparable scale, including those that may
arise in the future -- so, in other words, it was an open-ended
proposition -- that we wouldn't take a WTO action. Now that was not
designed to be the end of the matter. It was designed to give people
the assurance that we said we would try to resolve this by the end of
2002, we couldn't do it as a group, so that was our pledge. Now the
Swiss have followed us. The Europeans in their statement said that
they would follow this. I believe the Canadians intend to follow it,
so it is a good interim measure. We would still like to reach an
ultimate agreement on this because I understand, particularly from the
time I spent in this region, the anxiety that is caused by this issue.
And that takes us to the European proposal.

I saw Commissioner Lamy's suggestion as a constructive one and it
needs further discussion. It is a little general on how the WHO would
play the role. But at this point, frankly, since I found that we were
trying very hard to reach an agreement in late 2002 and many other
countries frankly used this as an opportunity to promote other
interests, I think we will see how other people respond to
Commissioner Lamy's suggestion.

Q: John Fraser, Business Day: So in general, it is something you would
work with?

Zoellick: Yes.

<snip>

Q: Bloomberg News, Dylan Griffiths: How do you ___ the problem of
poverty and HIV/AIDS. Do you think that the amount of money put in by
the US [on the war on terrorism] (unclear)? Do you think this is a
mismatch?

Zoellick: Well, it is interesting. I once remember attending a
conference in [unclear], France in 1987 where I was saying that
HIV/AIDS was going to become a major security problem globally and
everyone looked at me like I was totally off the moon. And I think it
has become that and just not only from what I read but from what I
see. When I was in Botswana I went to the HIV/AIDS center that is run
by the government and the Gates Foundation and by Merck and if you
look at its effect in terms of breaking down healthcare systems,
demographic mortality, productivity in the workforce, it is a
devastating feature of life.

Now, in terms of the U.S. contribution, the United States contributes
45% of all the international spending on HIV/AIDS globally. In the
FY-2003 budget=97that's the budget that is right before the Congress=97the
President asked for $1.3 billion which is a sizeable increase over the
past. I think it is actually a 79% increase over 2001 and 30% over the
prior year. Over half of our bilateral assistance goes to Africa. As
you may know, we pledged $500 million to the Global Fund to fight
HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and we are proposing another $200
million addition to that. For the international Mother-to-Child
Transmission Initiative we proposed $500 million and another $200
million is involved in that. So think it would be inaccurate to say
the United States isn't pouring in substantial resources. I think the
challenge that all of us still have to address here is a combination
of activities to be successful.

We obviously work on the TRIPS in medicine issue but as anybody who
works on the problem knows, that is just one dimension. This is a key
question of prevention. And go look at Senegal. Senegal has put in
prevention programs so that the transmission rate is miniscule now.
Thailand did the same thing. So it is in part prevention; it is in
part care programs; it is in part getting the right drugs in the right
form to people, so you can deal with the mother-to-child transmission;
and in many societies I would still add, I don't think they've
recognized the danger enough. There are special programs=97I forget
whether this was done in Senegal or others=97but one was a young woman's
education program. Because it is frightening how little people still
know or are at least willing to recognize about the transmission of
this disease. So this is not only a question of money. It is not only
a question of research. But it is a question, frankly of governments
taking the lead in pointing out to their publics that they run risks
of killing themselves. And it is one of the things again, I went to
Botswana to see because as you know the infection rate among sort of a
middle aged population is about 35%. It is as high as anywhere else
but I give President Mogae and his team credit because they are
acknowledging it. They are going out and telling people, they are
saying this is something you have to do to defeat it. And it can be
defeated, as we have seen in other countries, as we have seen in
places in Asia. It is going to require a combination of developed and
developing countries working together.

<snip>


--
Mike Palmedo
Consumer Project on Technology
T-202-387-8030
F-703-409-7211
mpalmedo@cptech.org