medicines
The US and France clashed on Tuesday over allegations by President Jacques Chirac that Washington was seeking to use bilateral trade agreements to reduce developing countries’ access to cheap medicines for diseases such as HIV/Aids.
As the United States and Peru negotiate a bilateral trade pact, a United Nations human rights expert has urged them to ensure any agreement includes public health safeguards so that essential drugs do not become unaffordable for millions of Peruvians.
Critics voiced doubt yesterday over Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s promise to provide equitable access to life-saving drugs for all people with HIV/Aids in Thailand, saying it was a pipe dream while disputes over patented drugs remain unresolved.
Politicians from Australia’s opposition party could try to derail the Australian-US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) after a Senate select committee claimed the deal could push up drugs prices and give copyright owners in Australia even more protection than they enjoy in the US.
The free trade agreement with the United States would lead to Australians paying 30 per cent more for prescription drugs, a leading American academic warned today.
The Australian Senate should delay implementing legislation for the Free Trade Agreement with the US. Countries such as Brazil and Thailand, with large generic pharmaceutical industries, are looking to Australia for leadership in countering this US bilateral push for global uniformly of high pharmaceutical prices through aggressive intellectual property (IP) protection.
Disagreements over trade in pharmaceuticals may bog down pending free trade agreements between the U.S. and foreign nations.
A free trade agreement due to be signed between Morocco and the USA by the end of this year could threaten access to medicines, several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) warned last week.
A free trade agreement with the United States would lead to a broader
application of intellectual property rights that could hurt Thais —
from farmers to internet users — an expert has warned.
The Free Trade Agreements concluded between the four member states of the European Free Trade Association ¬(EFTA) - Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein - and a number of developing countries contain provisions on the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) which go far beyond the obligations already imposed on these countries in the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
This paper examines the way in which bilateral trade negotiations (Bilateral Investment Treaties and Bilateral Intellectual Property Agreements) are being used by the USA and others to build more extensive protection for intellectual property than that set out in the WTO TRIPS Agreement.
