[Ip-health] Carnegie Endowment for International Peace testimony on Bilateral FTAs

[Mike Palmedo]

Statement of John Audley, Senior Associate and Director, Project on
Trade, Equity, and Development, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Trade
of the House Committee on Ways and Means

June 10, 2003

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*Trade-related intellectual property rights and public health*

TPA section 2102(b)(4)(C) instructs negotiators to =93respect the
Declaration on the TRIPS [trade-related aspects of intellectual property
rights] Agreement on Public Health, adopted by the World Trade
Organization at the Fourth Ministerial Conference at Doha, Qatar on
November 14^th , 2001.=94 In its advisory report to the president, the
Industry Functional Advisory Committee (IFAC) praised the intellectual
property rights chapter because it clarifies and improves on the
standards for patent protection contained in the WTO Agreement on TRIPS.
[27] Some industry representatives may view this as an important
victory, but limiting a country=92s ability to issue compulsory licenses
that would enable them to manufacture life-saving medicines for use in
poor countries is inconsistent with the spirit of the WTO TRIPS
declaration. In December 2002, the United States was the lone defector
from an otherwise unanimous decision among WTO members regarding new
rules that would allow countries to source the manufacture of generic
copies of patented drugs abroad. [28]

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