The US is pressing WTO members to agree to expand global trade even if they fail to resolve a row over patents on drugs to fight scourges such as aids, a senior US official said on Sunday. Negotiators from the 142-member World Trade Organisation were battling to bridge wide gulfs and draw up an agenda in Doha, Qatar for talks to bring down barriers to worldwide trade. But their efforts are clouded by demands from developing countries for a new interpretation of an agreement -- known as Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Developing nations are proposing a statement declaring, “Nothing in trips agreement shall prevent members from taking measures to protect public health.” The statement, aimed at making it easier to produce or import generic medicines, is included in a draft declaration on health, presented alongside the main WTO Declaration.
Washington, however, says that the proposal would eviscerate trips agreement and remove any incentive for pharmaceutical companies to invest in research for new medicines.
“What we have said is that we are not going to accept language that we think would weaken trips,” the senior US trade official said.
So if that is the ultimate conclusion, that we cannot resolve that very complex issue in the next couple of days, we think that is an issue that is separate and apart from the whole process of the main declaration, the official said.
Bureau Report