PHA-Exchange> FW: IP-Watch: WHO Board Delays Decision On Trade-Related Proposal

Tue May 31 07:22:34 PDT 2005

Dear Colleagues,

I am forwarding you an article from IP-Watch regarding the WHO Executive
Board decision to post-pone a resolution on trade and health until January
next year.

The resolution was proposed by Ecuador and Thailand, countries that are both
negotiating free trade agreements (FTA) with the United States that risk
containing intellectual property rules that could undermine access to
affordable medicines and the realization of human rights.

Best wishes,

Davinia

Davinia Ovett

Programme Officer

3D -> Trade - Human Rights - Equitable Economy

15, Rue des Savoises

CH-1205 Genève

Switzerland

Tel: +41 22 320 21 21

Fax: +41 22 320 69 48

Email: dovett at 3dthree.org

Website: www.3dthree.org

A new entry has been posted to the Intellectual Property Watch weblog.

Link to the complete article:

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index_test.php?p=59

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WHO Board Delays Decision On Trade-Related Proposal

by William New @ 5:17 pm, May 27 2005

The World Health Organisation Executive Board on Friday postponed to January
a proposal urging governments to adopt national policies on international
trade and health.

The draft resolution led by Thailand had the support of Benin, Bhutan,
Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, Iraq, Jamaica, Kenya, Nepal, Sudan,
Thailand, Tonga, Viet Nam, and others, but the board put it off after a
variety of amendments were offered, including some by Australia aimed at
softening the proposal's mandate that met with resistance.

The decision on the resolution came a day after the board showed general
support for a WHO secretariat report on international trade and health that
called for stronger ties between health and trade officials at all levels.
The support was particularly aimed at capacity building (such as training)
on trade issues, sources said.

The United States, which is not formally on the rotating board, expressed
dissatisfaction with the report in Thursday's session, arguing that WHO
should not reach too far into trade areas handled by other organizations
such as the World Trade Organization, according to observers.

But WHO officials insist that they have no intention of expanding their
reach or becoming involved in trade negotiations, observers added. "The WHO
is not going to be launching a massive program [on trade and health]. That
was never their intention," one observing official said. Rather, it is
seeking to strengthen regional and national programs for dealing with these
issues and integrate trade into its broader activities.

The WHO receives numerous and constant requests for expert opinion on the
public health impact of trade-related matters, especially since the
completion of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS), WHO sources said. A number of developing countries
have argued in recent years that TRIPS has harmed their ability to address
public health and other concerns, in part due to restrictions on
intellectual property rights.

The annual WHO General Assembly has in recent years taken actions related to
trade, such as urging them to adopt national legislation in order to use the
"flexibilities" in the WTO Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health adopted at
the November 2001 WTO ministerial in Doha, Qatar. Flexibilities are clauses
within the agreement allowing countries to get around commitments in the
name of public health or other reasons.

An example is a government issuing licenses for cheaper generic versions of
a patented drug in order to fight an epidemic.

Debate: Adopt v. Consider Adopting

The WHO secretariat said at Friday's meeting that the proposed resolution
would not produced additional changes to the program budget for 2006-2007.
The secretariat representative also said support to the first two countries
it assisted on trade and health issues amounted to $25,000 each, and that
there are 15 pending requests. But she said it is expected this support
would fall under country-specific activities with WHO "back-stopping" them -
though "clearly not to the tune of $25,000 to the secretariat."

The trade and health resolution as drafted "urged" member states to promote
dialogue at the national level and to "adopt policies, laws and regulations
that address issues identified in that dialogue and take advantage of the
potential opportunities, and mitigate the potential risks that trade and
trade agreements may or may not have for health."

Australia proposed to change this to say, "consider adopting policies, laws
and regulations," and to change the word "risks" to "impacts" later in the
sentence. Ecuador, which at the outset indicated support for the proposal,
had earlier suggested changing the "urging" of member states to "invites" in
order to make it more palatable, but Australia's proposed addition of the
word "consider" before "adopt" led Ecuador to withdraw that proposal and
declare that it would have to vote against the proposal. This is important
because the board makes decisions by consensus.

"It's too weak," the Ecuadoran representative said. "We don't want to word
it in such a way that is acceptable to everyone but doesn't mean anything
anymore." He suggested a small drafting group hash through the differences
and bring back an agreed-upon text in the afternoon, but a number of
countries supported postponing the resolution until the board meets again,
in January.

Ecuador and Thailand are currently engaged in separate negotiations with the
United States for bilateral free trade agreements and could potentially
benefit from a WHO message reinforcing the terms of international
agreements, sources said. Some developing countries have said U.S. terms for
such agreements go beyond the terms of TRIPS and may weaken countries'
ability to use flexibilities. The Bush administration has denied this.

Australia's proposal to change "risks" to "impacts" and in a later
reference, to "implications" also met with resistance out of concern that it
would weaken the resolution. Australia offered a number of less substantive
changes as well.

Additional proposed amendments to the resolution by other countries included
adding foreign affairs ministers to the list of health, commerce and trade
ministers who need to work together on trade and health issues, and to
establish national coordination mechanisms among all of these disciplines to
address public health aspects of international trade.

Intellectual Property Rights Commission Report Noted

Also on Friday, the board noted a secretariat progress report from the WHO
Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health.
The commission, established by the 2003 WHO General Assembly, is reviewing
links between intellectual property rights, innovation and public health by
analyzing current evidence and considering ways to "stimulate the creation
of new medicines and other products for diseases that mainly affect
developing countries."

The commission is due to complete work by May 2006, but did not hold its
first meeting until April 2004 and has had two meetings since. According to
the report, the commission has held extensive discussions with governments,
gathered data, and has used its website to stimulate debate.

The period of consultation will end next week, with a two-day workshop
Monday and Tuesday, followed by a public consultation on Wednesday, all at
WHO in Geneva.

Key issues raised by the report noted by the board Friday include the effect
of the patent system on health research, the public sector and innovation,
the impact of TRIPS on pharmaceutical research, and a variety of possible
improvements to incentive regimes and new medicines.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. All of the news
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Creative Commons License which makes them available for widescale, free,
non-commercial reproduction and translation.

William New, the author of this post, may be reached at wnew at ip-watch.org.

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