PROTEST AGAINST US BULLYING:
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DROP WTO ACTION NOW!

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) supports the demand by hundreds of Brazilian organisations that the US government drop its complaint against Brazil at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The US complaint claims that Brazil's new patent legislation violates the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement, by allowing the Brazilian government to issue compulsory licenses. The complaint is an attempt by the United States government to destroy Brazil's generic pharmaceutical industry. This industry has significantly reduced medicine prices and saved the lives of thousands of people in Brazil with HIV/AIDS.

Brazil produced these generic anti-retroviral medicines without using compulsory licenses because pharmaceutical patents were not recognised. However, in 1997 new legislation was effected which brought Brazil in line with its WTO TRIPS obligations. In order to produce new generic anti-retrovirals, the Brazilian government will have to issue compulsory licenses under this new legislation, which the US is now challenging.

This callous action by the US government threatens the lives of millions of people living with HIV/AIDS. It will not only hamper access to medicines for Brazil's 500,000 people with HIV, but also many third-world countries who are hoping to import Brazil's cheap medicines and to accept Brazil's offer of knowledge transfer.

The complaint is unlikely to be successful because the TRIPS agreement allows for compulsory licensing and parallel imports. These are measures often used by the United States government itself. Clearly this is an attempt by the United States government to intimidate Brazil and other poor countries attempting to break their dependency on multi-national pharmaceutical companies.

The complaint protects the interests of the multi-national pharmaceutical industry and their exorbitant profits alone. It is not even in the interest of most people in the USA, who pay extremely high prices for pharmaceutical products. TAC demands that the USA immediately drops the complaint.

Millions of lives are at stake in this case. TAC also asks WTO Director, Mr. Mike Moore to immediately convene the dispute settlement body of the WTO and to rule in line with TRIPS that any country is allowed to use compulsory licensing for products under patent to protect public health and nutrition. Failure to do this will demonstrate that the WTO simply defends the interest of the USA and multinational companies.

TAC demands that the South African Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Health and Trade and Industry issue a joint statement to defend Brazil.

TAC has called for a global day of action on the 5th March 2001 to denounce pharmaceutical company profiteering at the expense of the lives of people with HIV/AIDS and to express support for legislation introduced by the South African government to allow parallel imports of medicines. In light of the US complaint at the WTO, we are now also calling for our global allies to defend Brazil and demand that the complaint be dropped.

TAC will mobilise broad support for Brazil. For a copy of a TAC Fact Sheet on the Brazilian HIV/AIDS medicines programme contact info@tac.org.za, or download it from http://www.tac.org.za/archive.htm.

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