The head of the World Trade Organisation warned the west yesterday that failure to agree a deal on cheap drugs for developing countries could threaten the new round of global trade negotiations.
Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi said agreement on reforming international patent rules to allow these countries to import cheap drugs was one of two critical issues which had to be resolved before the next meeting of the 144-country WTO in Cancun in September, along with a framework for cutting farm subsidies.
”We need progress on drugs and on agriculture to make Cancun a success,” he said in London. ”We can’t spend half our time in Cancun working on these issues.”
Trade officials are worried that the talks are falling behind the ambitious deadlines ministers set when the new round of global trade talks began in November 2001.
Negotiators at the WTO’s Geneva headquarters were supposed to resolve the drugs issue by the end of last year, but a proposed deal agreed by 143 of the WTO’s members was blocked by the US after extensive lobbying by the American pharmaceutical industry.
US drugs companies argue that allowing copycat manufacturers to provide cheap drugs by overriding patents will make it unprofitable for them to invest in researching new remedies.
Cutting farm subsidies and ensuring access to cheap drugs are key issues for developing countries. After facing down opposition from France, which opposes reform of Europe’s generous farm subsidy system, the European commission offered to cut its export subsidies by 45% last week, but its position is unlikely to satisfy developing states, which want the elimination of the $1bn a year the west pays its farmers. – Guardian Unlimited Â