The
WTO deal on TRIPS and public health
was presented as a gift to the
poor, but it's tightly bound with
red tape, according to a message
received in city from Cancun. "The
new deal has opened up a window
of opportunities to Bangladeshi
manufacturers, but its implementation
will depend much on solving the
procedural problems and prompt
,action by the government,"
a Bangladeshi economist, now in
Cancun, told the UNB Thursday.
First,
he explained, the new deal explicitly
accepts a protectionist framework,
where rich nations can export
to poor countries, but 23 rich
countries were allowed to bar
imports from developing nations.
Then the long list of new regulatory
requirements does not apply
to compulsory licences in countries
with capacity for manufacturing.
And finally, the entire framework
of export restrictions is designed
to limit opportunities instead
of promoting economic efficiency,
the punitive rationale for free
trade agreements (FTAs).
However,
the good news is that the developing
countries resisted pressure
from the US, the EU, Japan and
other developing nations to
confine the agreement to only
a few diseases or extraordinary
circumstances. "The experts
from developing countries mentioned
that for a WTO deal it will
be more than a public relationing
exercise for a new round of
trade rules,-it should actually
work in practice," CPD
research fellow Ananya Raihan
said.
He
said the WTO took a 52word mechanism
that was endorsed by the European
Parliament in 2002 and created
a 3200-word maze of red tape
that was plainly designed to
frustrate and undermine the
objectives of protecting public
health and promoting access
to medicines for all. He identified
main problems with the rules
and explained that the WTO required
the issuance of two compulsory
licences when the new mechanism
would be used. The WTO has added
many constraints to the business
practices of the generic companies.
Ananya
said the WTO deal introduced
an extra layer of uncertainty
as it stated that the system
should not be an instrument
to pursue industrial or commercial
policy objectives, creating
uncertainty over the role that
would be played by the businesses
that manufacture and sell generic
drugs. The decision leaves it
unclear whether economic efficiency
is a ground for determining
a lack of manufacturing capacity
in the importing country, he
said.
