ARUN SHOURIE URGES
FASTER MOVEMENT ON IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES – ARTICULATES INDIA’S
VIEWS ON TRIPS AND ACCESS TO MEDICINES AT SYDNEY WTO INFORMAL
TRADE MINISTERS’ MEET
Mr. Arun Shourie,
Minister for Disinvestment, Commerce & Industry and Development
of North Eastern Region, has urged the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) to ensure faster progress on Implementation and Special
and Differential (S&D) Treatment issues so that positive results
on issues of priority to India and other developing countries
are achieved by the December deadline and also, to prepare a road
map for settling the remaining Implementation Issues immediately
thereafter - before the next Ministerial Conference at Cancun.
Participating in the Session on Implementation, Special and Differential
Treatment and trade-related Technical Assistance on the concluding
day of the Informal WTO Trade Ministers’ Meeting hosted by the
Government of Australia in Sydney today, Mr. Shourie emphasised
that significant progress must be achieved within a tight time-frame
in these important areas and stressed that this would be critical
for the credibility of the multilateral trading system. He said
this in the context of the feeling in many developing countries
that progress in areas of interest to them was slow while that
in areas like Market Access had been faster. This gap must be
bridged. The Minister also made the point that all implementation
provisions of the WTO agreements should be made precise, effective
and operational as was decided at Doha, rather than simply focussing
on conceptual issues.
On Special and Differential
Treatment India has submitted three papers - individually or jointly
with others – covering as many as 11 S&D proposals relating
to Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to
Trade, Import Licensing, Subsidies and Countervailing Measures
and Disputes Settlement Understanding. Mr. Shourie suggested that
all these proposals be examined and tangible progress be achieved
in these areas by the end of this year.
Articulating India’s
views on TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights) and Public Health at a Session on the subject during the
Informal Meet earlier in the day, Mr. Shourie said that the
Doha Declaration had rightly placed humanitarian issues above
commercial considerations and urged expeditious decision on para
6 of the Doha Declaration to address the problems of countries
with limited or no manufacturing capacity in the pharmaceutical
sector. This would ensure access to essential medicines
for their people by enabling them to procure medicines from other
sources. While noting that the draft of a possible decision on
para 6 circulated by the TRIPS Council earlier this week has several
positive features, Mr. Shourie said that further clarification
and discussions would be needed on disease and product coverage,
assessment of manufacturing capacity and the legal mechanism in
order to move towards a solution. He emphasised that the ambit
of Article 6 should not be circumscribed. The Article refers to
"public health problems" and is not confined to "epidemics" or
"infectious disease" as some developed countries were trying to
make out. Similarly, not just "kits" but everything that is required
to deal with the "public health problem" must be eligible for
compulsory licensing. In this context, Mr. Shourie also recalled
that the Australian delegate at an NGOs meeting last evening had
quoted a statement made by the World Health Organisation (WHO)
at the WTO TRIPS Council to the effect that "limited exception
under Article 30 is most consistent with the public health principle
and this solution will enable the most expeditious response to
a public health problem". The European Parliament has also recently
adopted an amendment to the European medicines regulations based
on this principle to the effect that "Manufacturing shall be allowed
if the medicinal product is intended for export to a third country
that has issued a compulsory licence for that product, or where
a patent is not in force and if there is a request to that effect
from the competent public health authorities of that third country".
This perspective should be kept in mind while working out a solution,
Mr. Shourie said. The new system should not curtail the existing
flexibilities available to supplying countries under the TRIPS
Agreement, the Minister added.
