quarta-feira, janeiro 11, 2006
GAT manda carta à embaixada americana
Para:
Embaixada dos Estados Unidos da América
Av. das Forças Armadas
1600-081 Lisboa
Lisboa, 9 de Janeiro de 2006.
International NGO Solidarity Statement: US-Thai Free Trade Negotiations Threaten Access to Medicines; Activists Demand Suspension of Negotiations and End to TRIPS-plus IP Provisions
Thai AIDS activists and their international allies are seeking suspension of scheduled trade talks that threaten to undermine Thailand¹s lawful ability to produce, import/export, and market low-cost generic versions of life-saving medicines. Today, in Chiang Mai, the United States and Thailand are scheduled to start the Sixth Round of negotiations on a proposed Free Trade Agreement and for the first time are holdingdiscussions on a U.S. proposal to dramatically increase intellectual property protections for pharmaceutical products. Simultaneously, ten thousand Thai activists, half of them living with HIV, are protesting the scheduled talks and trying to shut them down, promising to sleep overnight outside the meeting venue for three nights and to block entry to the negotiations.
The U.S. government has consistently refused to release the draft text ofits FTA proposals and simultaneously extracts promises of secrecy from itsnegotiating partners. This shroud of secrecy limits democratic review andcivil society participation in the negotiation process. In particular, it denies voice to the tens of thousands of Thais living with HIV/AIDS who need increased access to affordable second-generation antiretroviral and opportunistic infection medicines that are currently patent-protected and cost prohibitive.
Instead of allowing Thailand to use all existing flexibilities for accessingcheaper medicines under international law as confirmed by the 2001 WTO Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health and by the UNCommission on Human Rights, the U.S., based on past practice, will be seeking to heighten patent and data protection in the following ways:
- Extending patent terms beyond 20 years to compensate for administrative delays and easing standards of patentability on new formulations and uses, thereby extending the period of monopoly pricing;
- Restricting rights to parallel import cheaper medicines by codifying patent-holders¹ rights to contractually limit export/import of previously sold products;
- Potentially restricting the grounds for issuing compulsory licenses;
- Linking marketing approval to the absence of claimed patent rights and imposing 5-10 year data-exclusivity provisions (preventing reliance on proprietors¹ clinical trial data to grant marketing approval for generic products), thereby potentially restricting compulsory licensing rights;
- Imposing criminal penalties on companies that intentionally or inadvertently violate patents.
The U.S. attempts to down-play the significance of these hard-text treatyterms with an ambiguous and under-inclusive "side-letter" reaffirming tradepartners¹ rights to prioritize access to medicines. Such side-letters make no binding commitments, and the USTR has expressly declined to confirm the obligatory effect of the letters when asked to do so in response to Congressional inquiries.
Consistent with human rights norms requiring access to essential medicinesand in response to Thai activist demands, Thailand has initiated a programof universal access to government-subsidized antiretroviral drugs that nowreaches 70,000 of 170,000 Thai people living with HIV/AIDS. However, the future costs of expanded treatment with newer patented medicines will beprohibitive if the U.S. succeeds in its objectives to ratchet-up intellectual property protections.
Therefore, G.A.T.- Grupo Português de Activistas sobre Tratamentos de VIH/SIDA-Pedro Santos joins its Thai colleagues at Chiang Mai and throughout Thailand demanding that the U.S. suspend negotiations on intellectual property rights and that it drop all intellectual property provisions affecting access to pharmaceutical products, specifically all TRIPS-plus terms, in the Thai FTA and in other FTAs as well. In addition, we demand that the U.S. publish its proposed text for the entire FTA and that the Thai people have had a chance to hold public consultations on the proposed agreement.
Yours sincerely,
G.A.T.- Grupo Português de Activistas sobre Tratamentos de VIH/SIDA-Pedro Santos
Embaixada dos Estados Unidos da América
Av. das Forças Armadas
1600-081 Lisboa
Lisboa, 9 de Janeiro de 2006.
International NGO Solidarity Statement: US-Thai Free Trade Negotiations Threaten Access to Medicines; Activists Demand Suspension of Negotiations and End to TRIPS-plus IP Provisions
Thai AIDS activists and their international allies are seeking suspension of scheduled trade talks that threaten to undermine Thailand¹s lawful ability to produce, import/export, and market low-cost generic versions of life-saving medicines. Today, in Chiang Mai, the United States and Thailand are scheduled to start the Sixth Round of negotiations on a proposed Free Trade Agreement and for the first time are holdingdiscussions on a U.S. proposal to dramatically increase intellectual property protections for pharmaceutical products. Simultaneously, ten thousand Thai activists, half of them living with HIV, are protesting the scheduled talks and trying to shut them down, promising to sleep overnight outside the meeting venue for three nights and to block entry to the negotiations.
The U.S. government has consistently refused to release the draft text ofits FTA proposals and simultaneously extracts promises of secrecy from itsnegotiating partners. This shroud of secrecy limits democratic review andcivil society participation in the negotiation process. In particular, it denies voice to the tens of thousands of Thais living with HIV/AIDS who need increased access to affordable second-generation antiretroviral and opportunistic infection medicines that are currently patent-protected and cost prohibitive.
Instead of allowing Thailand to use all existing flexibilities for accessingcheaper medicines under international law as confirmed by the 2001 WTO Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health and by the UNCommission on Human Rights, the U.S., based on past practice, will be seeking to heighten patent and data protection in the following ways:
- Extending patent terms beyond 20 years to compensate for administrative delays and easing standards of patentability on new formulations and uses, thereby extending the period of monopoly pricing;
- Restricting rights to parallel import cheaper medicines by codifying patent-holders¹ rights to contractually limit export/import of previously sold products;
- Potentially restricting the grounds for issuing compulsory licenses;
- Linking marketing approval to the absence of claimed patent rights and imposing 5-10 year data-exclusivity provisions (preventing reliance on proprietors¹ clinical trial data to grant marketing approval for generic products), thereby potentially restricting compulsory licensing rights;
- Imposing criminal penalties on companies that intentionally or inadvertently violate patents.
The U.S. attempts to down-play the significance of these hard-text treatyterms with an ambiguous and under-inclusive "side-letter" reaffirming tradepartners¹ rights to prioritize access to medicines. Such side-letters make no binding commitments, and the USTR has expressly declined to confirm the obligatory effect of the letters when asked to do so in response to Congressional inquiries.
Consistent with human rights norms requiring access to essential medicinesand in response to Thai activist demands, Thailand has initiated a programof universal access to government-subsidized antiretroviral drugs that nowreaches 70,000 of 170,000 Thai people living with HIV/AIDS. However, the future costs of expanded treatment with newer patented medicines will beprohibitive if the U.S. succeeds in its objectives to ratchet-up intellectual property protections.
Therefore, G.A.T.- Grupo Português de Activistas sobre Tratamentos de VIH/SIDA-Pedro Santos joins its Thai colleagues at Chiang Mai and throughout Thailand demanding that the U.S. suspend negotiations on intellectual property rights and that it drop all intellectual property provisions affecting access to pharmaceutical products, specifically all TRIPS-plus terms, in the Thai FTA and in other FTAs as well. In addition, we demand that the U.S. publish its proposed text for the entire FTA and that the Thai people have had a chance to hold public consultations on the proposed agreement.
Yours sincerely,
G.A.T.- Grupo Português de Activistas sobre Tratamentos de VIH/SIDA-Pedro Santos
