10/1/2003
EU seeks to break the current deadlock on WTO access to medicines

The EU has launched an initiative to break the current WTO deadlock on developing countries ' access to affordable medicines. WTO members failed to meet the end of 2002 deadline to find a solution for developing countries without manufacturing capacities, namely given the disagreement over the disease coverage.

In a letter addressed to all WTO Trade Ministers, EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy proposes a multilateral solution which is workable, sustainable and legally secure, based both on the Doha mandate and on the chair 's compromise text of 16 December 2002. The EU approach secures absolute clarity that the deal covers the widest possible list of major infectious diseases. But it would not be a restrictive list. For any other serious public health problems, WTO members could ask for World Health Organisation (WHO) guidance if in doubt about whether their situation was covered by the agreement. Pascal Lamy said "involving the WHO as a means to get a WTO deal in the weeks ahead will deliver what is most urgently needed: a strong focus on major diseases afflicting the developing world, but offering sufficient flexibility to tackle other public health problems".

Despite the failure to reach a solution by the end of 2002, all WTO members agreed that there should be no WTO constraints on measures to provide medicines on affordable terms for HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis as well as a number of other infectious epidemics hitting developing countries i.e. Yellow fever, plague, cholera, meningococcal disease, African trypanosomiasis, dengue, influenza, leishmaniasis, hepatitis, leptospirosis, pertussis, poliomyelitis, schistosomiasis, typhoid fever, typhus, measles, shigellosis, haemorrhagic fevers, and arboviruses

The EU proposes that the mechanism apply in any event to those infectious epidemics which are generally recognised by health experts as those which have the most damaging impact on developing countries.

Though all WTO Members agree that these diseases are effectively covered by the solution proposed by the Chairman, a solution still needs to be found for other public health problems. In its proposal the EU suggests that Members wishing to import medicines to meet any public health concern not explicitly covered in an initial list be encouraged to seek WHO advice. The WHO, with its global health expertise in assessing developing countries' public health concerns, would be entrusted with assessing the occurrence of such situations and making recommendations. Involving the WHO with its public health expertise would provide a mechanism to ensure the Doha Declaration can be used in good faith.

The proposed solution would produce an overall WTO decision with comprehensive scope but differentiated modalities of application. This approach would be fully in line with the Doha Declaration and able to deliver what is most urgently needed: a strong focus on major diseases afflicting the developing world, but offering sufficient flexibility to tackle other public health problems.

In the meantime, the EU would refrain from challenging any Member which would want to export medicines according to the terms and modalities set out in the draft decision of 16 December 2002. This would not of course be anything other than a short term, stop gap contribution to preserving the status quo pending the adoption of a definitive - and multilateral - agreement in the WTO as soon as possible.

At the launch of the new trade round in Doha in November 2001. Ministers found a solution for countries with pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity and which could invoke a compulsory licence to produce medicines. It was also agreed that a solution had to be found before the end of 2002 for countries that could technically invoke a compulsory licence to produce medicines, but lacked the manufacturing capacity to make them locally.

WTO Members failed to reach an agreement meant to give developing countries better access to imported generic medicines manufactured under compulsory licences by the agreed deadline. Although there was broad support in favour of the compromise proposal submitted by Ambassador Eduardo Perez Motta, Chairman of the WTO TRIPs Council, the US sought to restrict the agreement to a limited list of diseases. Subsequently, it was agreed to resume negotiations in January in order to secure an agreement by the 10 February 2003 meeting of the WTO General Council.

The EU fully endorses the objective to secure an agreement on this matter as soon as possible. The compromise proposal tabled today aims at securing a definitive agreement at the WTO and proposing, as an interim solution, a dispute settlement moratorium on the basis of the 16 December 2002 Perez Motta text.