[Ip-health] IP Protection in Thai FTA must not exceed US law said Dr. Somkiat

[Manon Ress]

Intellectual property rights protection in Thai-US FTA must not
exceed US law :TDRI
http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=3D5729

BANGKOK, Jan 8 (TNA) =96  A leading academic said there is no reason
why Thailand should offer terms of intellectual property rights (IPR)
protection beyond what=92s available within the US legal framework.

Speaking at the public forum organised by the National Economic and
Social Advisory Board on the impact of the ongoing Thai-US Free Trade
Agreement negotiations, Dr Somkiat Tangkijvanit from Thailand
Development Research Institute (TDRI) pointed out that the IPR
protection spelt out in the FTAs the US have concluded with
Singapore, Chile and Australia exceeds the World Trade Organisation=92s
Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights,
as well as exceeding what=92s written in the US law itself.

In the case of Thailand, the so-called TRIPS plus protection demanded
by the US involves four aspects of the pharmaceutical industry. These
include the allowance for medicine patent protection to last longer
than 20 years in case of delay in patent examination and approval of
new drugs. Conditions for compulsory licensing and parallel import of
medicine will also be subject to terms stricter than what=92s allowed
for in TRIPS. The US also demands data exclusivity for drugs testing,
which means a five-year delay for market entry of generic drugs which
usually rely on such test data for approval.
Dr Somkiat noted that there appears to be no check and balance
mechanism for those maximum terms of intellectual property rights
protection.
Thailand=92s option is to seek to eliminate those TRIPS plus and US
Plus terms because there is no justification for Thailand to offer
IPR protection beyond the parameter of the US law, in the hopes that
the Thai-US FTA =93would at least not be worse than the US-Chile FTA,=94
said Dr Somkiat. (TNA)-E007

************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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