M A I N   N E W S

WTO reaches compromise
Access to medicine in developing nations

Doha, November 12
In a major breakthrough, negotiators from over 140 WTO member countries have reached a compromise deal at the Ministerial Conference today on intellectual property rights (IPR), one of the contentious and difficult implementation issues regarding access to medicine and public health concerns in poor and developing countries.

The text accepted by the Ministerial Working Group after hard bargaining that lasted till the early hours today said the WTO’s IPR accord, known as TRIPS, "shall not prevent members from taking measures to protect public health."

Developing countries, including India, had opposed the USA and Switzerland over the right to override patents and have open access to cheaper generic drugs in times of epidemics.

Developing countries argue that the affordability of these patented drugs is a major issue and several NGOs have quoted statistics to say how prices of medicines have shot up in poor countries.

India, Brazil and other developing countries wanted the right to produce or import cheaper generic versions of the drugs which may violate international trade rules.

A US spokesman confirmed that there was a good progress on this issue but maintained that no deal has been struck so far.

The compromise is likely to help smoothen the way for agreement on other difficult issues, including textiles, where the developing countries have been demanding better market access ahead of the phase-out of the multifibre agreement (quota system) by January 1, 2005 as per the Uruguay round of multilateral negotiations.

The deal follows TRIPS consultations facilitator, Mexican Trade Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez Batista, asking eight countries to draft a compromise language on the two options outlined under paragraph four of the draft Ministerial Declaration.

The eight countries are: India, New Zealand, European Union, Canada, US, Zimbabwe, Brazil and Kenya. EU has tried to claim credit for forging a deal on medicines, saying it was playing the role of an honest broker between the USA and the developing countries. PTI