Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - Tuesday, December 17, 2002
Naomi Koppel, Associated Press Writer
"It's up to the United States now," European Union Ambassador Carlo Trojan told reporters at the end of a renewed negotiating session at the World Trade Organization.
At stake is a draft agreement which would allow some developing countries to ignore patents on branded medicines and use cheaper generic drugs to treat diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. But the draft could also allow for developing countries to circumvent drug patents for other diseases and conditions.
The United States says it generally supports the proposal, but maintains the agreement must be limited in scope to drugs that treat infectious disease epidemics and not to gain access to cheap medicines for asthma, diabetes or smoking-related illnesses.
"We remain committed to both the intention and the spirit and we will work with other delegations," U.S. Ambassador Linnet Deily told reporters. She declined to comment on diplomats' claims that the United States is alone in blocking agreement.
Switzerland, which like the United States has a large pharmaceutical industry, has yet to announce its support for the text. However, diplomats expect that Switzerland will fall in line if the United States accepts the agreement.
The meeting was adjourned until Friday. If members are to meet their self-imposed time limit of the end of the year to settle the issue, that meeting will be their last chance. The WTO is closed throughout the Christmas and New Year period.
Antonio de Aguiar Patriota of Brazil said the United States had to accept the compromise proposal on the table or risk wrecking the whole agreement, drawn up after many months of painstaking talks.
"The predominant view is that if we change anything in this text, it is a very delicate balance and it will unravel the entire process," he said.
A ministerial meeting in Qatar in November last year recognized the right of WTO members to override patents on expensive Western drugs and make the products themselves when public health is at stake.
However, drugs made under such "compulsory licensing" were to be used only domestically and not exported. That meant a country without a drug industry was no better off because it could neither make the drugs nor buy them from another country.
Developing countries, led by South Africa and Brazil, reluctantly accepted the declaration rather than cause the collapse of the bid to launch a wider trade round. In return, the WTO was instructed to solve the problem by the end of this year.
Trojan said that, like most of the WTO's 144 members, the 15-nation EU had problems with the agreement but would accept it.
"I think we have gone so far that we need to go the last mile. It isn't a trade negotiation issue, it's a humanitarian issue," he said.
Kenyan Ambassador Amina Chawahir Mohamed, speaking on behalf of all the African WTO members, said the African nations - who were wavering after Monday's meeting - also had decided to accept the agreement "as imperfect as it is." Developing countries had been clamoring for more liberal measures.
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