PHA-Exchange> A letter to EU

[Dr. Gopal Dabade]

Dear friends,
Greetings from BUKO Pharma-Kampagne,
We have been following the EU meetings
http://trade-info.cec.eu.int/civil_soc/intro1.php at Brussels on Access to
Medicines.
The EU is trying to push an US agenda, towards restricting and undermining
the Doha Declaration, by suggesting a restricted
list of diseases and also that WHO should be consulted.
We urge you to write a  letter or fax a letter to commissioner not to
undermine the decision of the Doha declaration. A sample letter is below,
with fax number and address of the commissioner.
We would appreciate having a copy of your letter. Since the EU commissioner
is to
meet the Civil Society om 25th March, I would urge you to send at the
earliest,
--
From;
Dr. Gopal Dabade
BUKO Pharma-Kampagne,
August Bebel Str 62,
D 33602 Bielefeld,
Germany
Tel +49 521 60550,
Fax +49 521 63789
www.bukopharma.de

Copy of the letter that needs to be sent:-

FAX NUMBER 0032-298-1399,
To,
Pascal Lamy,
Commissioner for Trade,
European Commission,
Rue de la Loi 200,
B-1049 Brussels,
Belgium.
Dear Pascal Lamy,
	This letter expresses concerns over your initiatives to break the current
deadlock on the access to essential medicines. In you in your letter dated
7th January 2003 to the WTO Trade Ministers, you suggest a limited list of
infectious disease for developing countries. This undermines the basic
statement of the Doha declaration, which clearly states that countries with
no capabilities of manufacturing should be able to decide, depending on the
public health crises.
	It is unfortunate that this list of diseases, that has been produced by
your commission is the list that has been promoted by the United States of
American government, and so obviously representing the interests of the
United States of America. This list is extremely arbitrary and has no
relevance, as it does not look at the real health issues that are at stake
and most importantly, it also takes away the right of the developing
countries to decide on health issues which are of major concerns to them, as
they are the best to decide on issues which concern them.
	The list of diseases that have been proposed by you also does not include
diseases like cancer, diabetes and others which are also a major public
health problems in developing countries.
	If the discussions on important public health issues are hijacked by EU and
USA in such fashion then inevitable the Fifth Session of its Ministerial
Conference, to be held in Cancun, Mexico, in September 2003, will land up
being another revival of the Seattle meeting, in which huge demonstrations
only marred the proceedings of the WTO ministerial.
	Keeping this experience in mind we are sure you will reconsider the
statements made by you as this issue of Doha declaration concerns life of
million of people and it could lead to an international trade crisis thus it
would make a bleak picture for WTO in future.

	We strongly believe and urge you to give up making proposals that would
restrict the agreement on compulsory licences to a limited list of diseases
and even involving the World Health Organization in assessing public health
concerns simply constitutes an unacceptable attempt to restrict developing
countries’ use of compulsory licensing. We firmly assert that the scope of
diseases was already extensively discussed in Doha, and the consensus text
included in the Doha declaration rejects any limitations.
	With best wishes.
From;
PUT THE NAME YOUR ORGANISATION HERE.