UK block on drugs for poor

Nick Mathiason and Oliver Morgan
Sunday November 4, 2001
The Observer

The British government is blocking moves to get cheap life-saving drugs to poor countries ravaged by diseases such as Aids.
The move could derail the World Trade Organisation talks at Doha, Qatar later this week. African Trade Ministers say reforming patent law is 'a make or break issue'.

Britain's actions have sparked fury among campaigners who believe the pharmaceutical lobby has taken precedence over the world's poor.

Senior trade officials from Britain and Germany have prevented a European Commission declaration aimed at reforming international patent law that would give poor countries the right to import cheap drugs to protect their citizens.

Britain has also vetoed the introduction of a temporary moratorium on WTO disputes over Trips - Trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights - if countries break patents to protect public health. The veto was made by officials at the shadowy 133 Committee in the EC - the forum where trade policy is thrashed out.

Kevin Watkins, Oxfam's senior policy campaigner, said: 'At the last Labour Party conference Tony Blair said it was up to prosperous countries to create a framework to remove poverty from Africa. But what Britain is doing with regards to Trips is a crime. Blair says one thing and his officials do another. Reforming Trips is the biggest single issue the developed world could do to alleviate poverty.'

But Patricia Hewitt, the Trade Minister, told The Observer : 'I don't believe that Trips is a barrier, but clearly there are developing countries that do feel it is.'

Hewitt added that she believed a tiered drug pricing system would benefit those suffering from diseases such as TB, malaria and Aids. She also said Britain had donated £200 million to a global fund to buy life-saving drugs for poor countries.

There is enormous pressure from America and Europe for the WTO ministerial trade talks to succeed. Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, said the health of the global economy is at stake. The last talks at Seattle failed dismally.

Africa is facing a humanitarian disaster. Most of the 33 million diagnosed with HIV worldwide live in Africa.