[Ip-health] Korea Delay On Pharma FTA

[heeseob nam]

The waiver is incomplete. Only the application of Article 22.4 (Scope
of Application of Dispute Settlement Proceedings) is delayed for the
first 18 months.

I mean that an individual drug company holding a patent right on
pharmaceutical product can raise a suit against a generic company to
block the marketing approval by relying on FTA text (Article
18.9:5(b)). The drug company may also take an action against Korean
drug approving authority. Further, the drug company can rely on ISD
(Investor-State Dispute) provision in Chapter 11 (Investment). These
actions are possible because the waiver regarding the implementation
obligation of "linkage" is only applied to the dispute under Chapter
22.

--
HeeSeob Nam
IPLeft (www.ipleft.or.kr)
hurips@gmail.com
Tel +49 89 500 280 86
Fax +49 89 6606 2756
Geitauerstr. 4/1 OG 81379
Munich Germany


On 02/07/07, Sean Flynn <sflynn@wcl.american.edu> wrote:
> This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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> From Inside US Trade:
>
>
>
> Korea Gets Delay On Pharmaceuticals; Accepts Labor, Environment Text
>
>
>
> In exchange for fully accepting additional commitments on labor and
> environment in its bilateral free trade agreement with the United
> States, the U.S. has accepted Korea*s demand for a delay in implementing
> the obligation for a patent linkage system.
>
>
>
> The U.S. has agreed that Korea will not have to implement such a system
> until the FTA has been in force for 18 months, according to a spokesman
> for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Instead, the U.S. will
> only consult with Korea, and refrain from launching dispute settlement,
> for any patent linkage noncompliance during this grace period, he said.
>
>
>
> Under a patent linkage system, the Korean Food and Drug Administration
> would not grant marketing approval for a drug unless it can certify that
> it does not infringe on a patent.
>
>
>
> Korea had sought this grace period to help its drug companies, which are
> not sufficiently developed to take on the obligation more quickly
> (Inside U.S. Trade, June 29).
>
>
>
> Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong this week also demanded that two
> labor provisions be changed in the new FTA text that the Bush
> Administration worked out with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman
> Charles Rangel (D-NY). The USTR spokesman said the U.S. rejected the
> Korean demands for changes to the labor provisions.
>
>
>
> Remarking on Korea*s decision to accept the provisions, Korean Prime
> Minister Han Duck-soo today (June 29) said the new trade policy *is not
> too burdensome to Korea,* and that its guidelines *coincide with the
> direction of our domestic labor and environment policies,* as
> interpreted by a Korean official.
>
>
>
> The USTR spokesman said the U.S. made *no commitment* on professional
> visas, as Korea had sought. *That*s something that the administration
> can always look at with Congress, but there were no commitments made on
> that,* he said.
>
>
>
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