World Trade Organisation (WTO) members on Friday failed to reach a deal on ensuring patent rules do not bar access to cheap medicines for poor countries, after problems prevented a deal at the eleventh hour.
Although the 146 WTO countries earlier agreed to pass on a proposed compromise for approval by the body’s ruling general council, it failed to win overall backing.
”There is no deal. We need more time,” WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell told reporters, adding the council’s chairperson Carlos Perez del Castillo would hold further talks from as early as later on Friday.
A breakthrough on Wednesday, when five key countries involved in trying to resolve the longstanding problem agreed on a proposed solution, had led to high hopes for an endorsement by the other 141 states.
But after several hours of meetings being called, delayed and adjourned at WTO headquarters on Thursday, new divergences arose among members over the interpretation of the proposed deal.
”It became clear it was not a question of two or three countries, it was a great many countries,” Rockwell told reporters.
A source speaking on condition of anonymity said on Friday morning the Philippines had led other developing countries in saying they had a different understanding of the initial compromise than developed countries.
The issue, which has cast a shadow over global free trade talks since late 2001, will now likely have to be dealt with by a ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in two weeks, Rockwell added.
That conference, from September 10 to 14, already faces tough decisions in key areas such as agriculture and on whether to begin negotiations on drawing up rules on trade and investment policy.
Despite the setback, European trade negotiator Pascal Lamy did not rule out an agreement before the Cancun summit.
”There was no agreement last night. My view is that there will be one either before or at Cancun,” Lamy said on French radio station Europe 1.
Envoys had been seeking an agreement to ensure that poor countries without a pharmaceutical industry could import cheaper generic copies of patented medicines for fighting killer diseases such as Aids and malaria.
United States opposition had blocked a deal last December, with Washington citing concerns that the proposal could open the way to generic producers in Brazil and India flooding the market with cheap medicines.
But the US, Brazil and India, as well as Kenya and South Africa, agreed a draft compromise on Wednesday to allay US concerns that included the December text, plus a ‘chairman’s statement’.
Most countries informally signalled they would endorse the deal at initial talks later on Wednesday but when the meetings resumed on Thursday the compromise began to run into difficulties.
Without naming countries, Rockwell said there were ”perhaps two dozen” countries with differing views.
”This is a serious humanitarian issue which cannot be done in a way which is not entirely clear,” Perez del Castillo was reported to have told delegates.
”We have to get this right, not just for us but more importantly for the people who desperately need these medicines.”
The compromise had stated that the new rules would be used ”in good faith” to protect public health and not for commercial or industrial objectives.
It also stressed the importance of ensuring that generic medicines are not diverted back to rich country markets, and that 23 developed countries would not use the solution to import generic drugs.
The 10 leading candidate members of the EU would also opt out unless faced with emergencies until they become full members of the bloc next year, according to the draft text.
And a group of middle-income developing countries is also called on to agree to opt out from using the solution unless faced with a national emergency. — Sapa-AFP