CAFTA's provisions to protect and expand the patent monopolies of U.S. pharmaceutical companies in Central America will undermine access to affordable generic AIDS drugs and increase the price of medicines, according to the activists. Thousands of HIV positive Central Americans are in immediate need of treatment or else they will die. In Honduras, for example, more than 73,000 people are infected and one person dies with AIDS each hour. 2 million people are living with HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean; of the six Latin American countries with the highest HIV prevalence, four are Central American, according to the World Bank.

"Untreated AIDS in Central America is like a house on fire. Bush's CAFTA will just pour gasoline on the fire," said Earl Driscol of ACT UP, who was arrested at today's protest. "These are trade policies negotiated in our names as Americans. We have an obligation to stand up and demand that Bush put public health and access to medicines first, not his greedy drive to pander to Big Pharma."

The Bush Administration, along with all other WTO members, signed the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health (Doha Declaration) in November 2001, under extreme pressure from developing countries and civil society. The Doha Declaration reaffirms WTO member countries' right to break drug company patent monopolies in order to promote access to medicines for all. Bush is disregarding this pledge in the CAFTA by establishing new rules that are tougher than what the WTO requires.

The CAFTA is just one of many trade agreements in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Africa and Asia, the U.S. is negotiating in poor regions. Winning new, higher levels of patent protection and new means to obstruct the market entry of generic medicines is an objective of each of these deals, according to activists.

"Bush plans to trade away access to medicines in order to maximize the profits of pharmaceutical companiesÑeven if millions are left to die as a result," said Eustacia Smith of ACT UP, a protester. "CAFTA's false promises of so-called free trade won't work for the dead."

Generic competition is the most powerful mechanism for reducing drug prices; recent negotiations brokered by the Clinton Foundation between poor country governments and generic companies resulted in prices as low as $135 per person per year for a triple combination of HIV medicines. Under the CAFTA, similar negotiations with newer medicines would be impossible.

ACT UP DEMANDS:
* No intellectual property provisions in CAFTA, or any other trade agreement being negotiated by the U.S. WTO intellectual property rules must be the ceiling for trade agreements, not a floor. Countries should be permitted to use every means at their disposal to increase access to low cost generic medicines for all.

* the World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization must aggressively use their expertise to assist countries in negotiating trade agreements and developing national laws that prioritize health and access to medicines.

Find more resources at: www.healthgap.org/camp/ftaa.html#resources

CONTACT FOR MORE INFORMATION

Onsite contacts: Asia Russell (267) 475-2645 or Eric Sawyer (917) 951-5758
Offsite contacts: Kate Sorensen (267) 307-1359 or John Riley (917) 653-7267

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