[Ip-health] Fwd: [G & H] CPATH: Korea, meds, tobacco

[Ellen Shaffer]

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ellen Shaffer <ershaffer@cpath.org>
Date: Mar 30, 2007 11:23 AM
Subject: [G & H] CPATH: Korea, meds, tobacco
To: globalizationandhealth@topica.com

See CPATH Testimony to Ways & Means on tobacco control and access to
medicines online at:

*http://www.cpath.org/id29.html

Main points:
Tobacco Control*

The Korea-US Trade Promotion Agreement will likely include provisions
intended to increase the use of tobacco products, which are lethal.  These
provisions include reductions in tariff and nontariff barriers to trade in
tobacco products. Reducing tobacco consumption is a key public health goal
in South Korea, where 67% of males smoke presently.

*Intellectual Property and Access to Affordable Medicines
*
The U.S. persists in pressing for changes in Korea's drug pricing system
that are strongly opposed in Korea.  Because several U.S. federal programs
use reference pricing systems similar to Korea's to provide affordable
drugs, the U.S. is trading off our ability to provide affordable medicines
at home in exchange for economic benefits to the transnational
pharmaceutical industry. We are also trading off our ability to concentrate
on other objectives, such as opening up automobile markets, in return for
questionable benefits to the transnational pharmaceutical industry and even
fewer clear benefits to the American public.

*CPATH recommends the following:

*Exclude tobacco products* *from the agreement, including all provisions
that could lower prices or challenge tobacco control measures.
Exclude TRIPS-plus provisions including data exclusivity, patent extensions
and linkage, from the Korea agreement.
Exclude provisions calling for outside review of government drug purchasing
determinations in Korea and in the U.S.
Eliminate the investor-state provision that gives foreign corporations
greater rights than domestic investors to file trade challenges against
tobacco control and measures.

Ellen R. Shaffer, PhD, MPH, Co-Director
Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health (CPATH)
98 Seal Rock Drive
San Francisco, CA 94121-1437

*phone:* 415-933-6204
email: ershaffer@cpath.org
mobile: 415-680-4603
www.cpath.org
*fax:* *415-831-4091*

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