TRIPS deal could be ‘blown wide open’ after Doha paper

Date: 14/02/02

By David Cronin

EU trade officials say the key international accord on patent rights may have to be revised so that the world's poorest countries can have access to cheap medicines for treating AIDS and other lethal diseases.

A new European Commission paper recommends that the TRIPS (trade-related aspects of international property rights) agreement could require amendments if the objectives agreed at last November's Doha ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are to be achieved.

WTO members agreed to find an 'expeditious solution' to the problems faced by developing nations, with little or no facilities for manufacturing drugs, in buying medicines from abroad.

One expert in 'intellectual property' rights predicted that the Commission paper, due to be discussed at next month's meeting of the TRIPS governing council, is likely to prove contentious.

Until now the richest WTO members had hoped that a deal enabling poor countries to buy vital drugs could be thrashed out without actually altering TRIPS.

'Lawyers say it is difficult to do what was declared in Doha without amending TRIPS itself,' the expert added.

'TRIPS was agreed in the Uruguay round [of trade liberalisation talks in 1986-94] when developing countries had no voice. So if you go down the route of amending TRIPS, you could blow the whole thing wide open.'

The aim of an amendment would be to allow countries such as Zambia, which lack significant drug-production plants, to adopt compulsory licences allowing them to import generic drugs, rather than more expensive varieties branded by major multinational companies. Under the current world trade rules, it would be technically illegal to adopt such licences.

The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) says it will oppose any watering down of TRIPS. Spokesman Christophe de Callatay said: 'TRIPS is a well-balanced trade agreement which works for the benefit of all countries.

'It provides flexibility for emergency situations and addresses the needs of poor countries.

'Weakening TRIPS would be very detrimental to the development of new medicines in the future.'

A new European Commission paper recommends that the TRIPS (trade-related aspects of international property rights) agreement could require amendments if the objectives agreed in November 2001 at the Doha ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are to be achieved.