[Ip-health] Bangkok Post op-ed on WTO Ministerial, P6

[Mike Palmedo]

*Ministerial in Mexico looks like second Seattle *

*/The next WTO summit is in mid-September, and there looks to be more
differences than agreements among the countries attending. /*

*WALDEN BELLO *

Bangkok Post
27 May, 2003

<snip>

STALEMATE IN TRIPS

In the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) and public
health controversy, there has been no give on the part of the US. It
maintains the position that patent rights should be loosened only in the
case of drugs for HIV-Aids, malaria and tuberculosis.

Washington is now talking about loosening patent rights for ``public
health crises'' instead of ``public health problems''. US negotiators
have reportedly told their developing country counterparts that if they
want any movement in the negotiations, they should talk directly to the
pharmaceutical giants.

Another disturbing occurrence is that WTO director-general Supachai
Panitchpakdi himself is spreading the blame for the stalemate from the
US to Brazil and India, whose manufacturers, he alleges, will be the
ones that will benefit principally from looser patent rights.

<snip>