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Japan trade pact talks move forward
19-Nov-2008 Business Standard
The negotiations for the India-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) have gained momentum with the two sides moving towards a deal on allowing Indian companies that make low-cost drugs to sell in Japan.
Asean free trade concerns still bug RP pharmas
28-Sep-2008 PDI
Fearful fo the ongoing to realize a single market for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations by 2015, Filipino-owned pharmaceutical firms have asked the government to ensure that safety nets are in place for the local industry. Some are more concerned about the India-ASEAN FTA.
Asean free trade concerns still bug RP pharmas
28-Sep-2008
Fearful of the ongoing effort to realize a single market for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations by 2015, Filipino-owned pharmaceutical firms have asked the government to ensure that safety nets are in place for the local industry.
Could free trade with US impact Pharmac?
23-Sep-2008
Concerns are being raised by the Green Party as to how a free trade agreement with the United States might affect domestic drug-funding agency Pharmac.
Ranbaxy deal may help India’s entry into Japan
16-Jun-2008 Financial Express
The Daiichi Sankyo-Ranbaxy Laboratories deal has come as a shot in the arm for India’s Comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement (CECA) negotiations with Japan. Indian pharma companies have been unable to break into Japan, the world’s second largest drug market, due to the country’s stringent sanitary and phytosanitary standards, technical barriers to trade (TBT) and environmental norms.
US trade policy favors IP over health: GAO
2-Nov-2007 Pharmalot
That’s one of the take-away messages contained in a 68-page report that reviews the Bush administration’s approach to trade agreements and intellectual property protection, specifically as it pertains to pharmaceuticals.
Observers watchful of US trade impact on medicines access
24-Jul-2007 IP Watch
The United States has begun incorporating a revised intellectual property and health policy into its bilateral trade deals. But although the overall softer approach towards its partners may improve access to medicines, the debate on the impact of the US free trade agreements on public health in developing countries is not over, according to close observers.
A dubious and secret influence on our public health policy
12-Jun-2007
Australians have a natural dislike of faceless people making major government policy decisions. Such activity seems to run counter to core principles about how a democracy should operate. Yet, this is what appears to have happened with the Medicines Working Group, established under the free trade agreement between Australia and the United States.
EU in danger of breaking its promise to the poor
10-Jun-2007 Financial Times
In its economic partnership agreement (EPA) negotiations with the ACP, the European Union seems to have forgotten the development dimension and pursues an agenda that reflects primarily the interest of the EU alone. This pattern is painfully evident in the EU’s pursuit of new and higher standards for intellectual property and other trade-related areas.
U.S. health expert warns Korea about effects of FTA
5-Jun-2007
What would happen if a government’s policy for public health comes under siege by lawsuits from foreign companies?
Korean trade agreement: Threat to public health
31-May-2007 News Release Wire
The US-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) continues the practice of corporate hijacking global trade negotiations to the benefit of transnational drug and tobacco companies, and at the expense of people’s health. It threatens core protections for public health, long under fire from NAFTA’s notorious Chapter 11.
Indian pharma cos see hope as US retreats on data exclusivity
15-May-2007 Economic Times
A section of India’s generic drug industry has claimed that its ability to export generic drugs to over a dozen countries with which the US is planning FTAs will increase, if a “conceptual agreement” reached last week by the US’ House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Bush administration is ratified and implemented.
Bipartisan trade deal: full text
14-May-2007 Committee on Ways and Means
Full text of the bipartisan trade deal reached between the US’ Democrat-led Congress and the Bush Administration
Bipartisan trade deal: USTR "fact sheets"
13-May-2007 USTR
’New trade policy for America’
11-May-2007 House and Ways Committee
The agreement announced today is a fundamental shift in US trade policy and clears the way for broad, bipartisan congressional support for the Peru and Panama FTAs.
US action plan must be opposed, groups tell govt
11-May-2007
Thai Aids activists and academics called on the Commerce Ministry yesterday to reject the "action plan" proposed by the United States to remove Thailand from its priority watch list for intellectual property protection.
FTA: The unstated reason for the watch list
11-May-2007
The US decision to put Thailand on its "priority watch list" this month was prompted by failed talks on a free trade agreement, as well as the patent-busting of US-made pharmaceuticals, a former US trade official said Friday.
Drug firms against trade changes
7-May-2007 Morning Call
US drugmakers, among the biggest proponents of free-trade agreements, are now lobbying to stop Democrats and the Bush administration from reworking pending trade deals to curb provisions that benefit the industry.
Drug makers fear trade deal from House Dems, administration
3-May-2007 The Hill
Research-based pharmaceutical companies could be among the biggest losers if House Democrats and the Bush administration reach an agreement on trade, industry sources said this week.
Drug dispute could lead to trade trouble
29-Apr-2007
The Thai government’s showdown with multinational drug companies over compulsory licensing could result in a downgrade on Washington’s watch list of countries with poor intellectual property (IP) rights protection, trade sources say.