The head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Supachai Panitchpakdi, warned Western nations this week that their failure to agree to a deal on cheap drugs for developing countries could threaten the next round of global trade negotiations.
He said an agreement on reforming international patent rules to allow these countries to import cheap drugs was one of two critical issues that had to be resolved before the next meeting of the WTO in Cancun in September, along with a framework for cutting farm subsidies.
Trade officials are worried that talks are falling behind the ambitious deadlines ministers set when they launched the new round of global trade talks in November 2001.
Negotiators at the WTO’s Geneva headquarters were supposed to resolve the drug issue by the end of last year, but the United States blocked the proposed deal after extensive lobbying by the powerful American pharmaceutical industry.
US drug companies say that allowing copycat manufacturers to provide cheap drugs by overriding patents will make it unprofitable to invest in researching new cures.
Progress on farm talks has been equally slow after the European Union missed a December deadline to put an offer on the table.
After facing down opposition from France, which opposes reform of Europe’s generous farm subsidy system, the European Commission offered last week to cut its export subsidies by 45%.
But its position is unlikely to satisfy developing countries, which want the $1-billion-a-year subsidy the West pays its farmers to be completely eliminated. — Â