4th September 2003
WTO MEMBERS REACH LAST-MINUTE DEAL ON TRIPS & HEALTH
After a flurry of eleventh hour negotiations, WTO Members on 30 August adopted the 16 December Decision on paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPs (Trade- related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement and Public Health together with a statement by the TRIPs Council Chair, Ambassador Vanu Gopala Menon of Singapore (see BRIDGES Weekly, 28 August 2003). The Decision spells out the conditions under which countries without pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity can import generic versions of drugs still under patent. The list of advanced developing countries, which have agreed not to use the system except in situations of national emergency or other circumstances of extreme urgency, was re-introduced into the final version of the Chair’s statement. Civil society groups expressed disappointment with the deal, describing it as “a new model for explicitly endorsing protectionism,” in the words of James Love of the Consumer Project on Technology. Nevertheless, they applauded developing countries for not compromising on the coverage of diseases, as called for by the US.