ISDS Case Map
medicines
Botswana was warned last week by a UN Committee that trade agreements should not undermine Botswana's ability to ensure access to affordable treatment for children or other people with HIV/AIDS.
Twenty leading medical and legal experts, and seven peak health and community services organisations, will send today an open letter to John Howard and Mark Latham demanding changes to the free trade agreement with the US before the agreement is ratified in late October.
US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick's warning to Australia that an amended free-trade agreement might conflict with the letter and spirit of the original agreement was prompted by bullying from the American pharmaceuticals industry, according to a US trade adviser.
Tariffs on agricultural products and definitions of intellectual property rights, particularly for pharmaceuticals, are shaping up as the most contentious issues in the free trade negotiations between the United States and three Andean nations, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
The Colombian Germán Velásquez says that it was unfair for the US to veto the Argentine advisor Carlos Correa. He claims that poor countries must continue to have access to cheap medicines even if there are trade treaties. His request is that the Doha agreement is respected.
Australia's ratification of a free trade agreement with the United States has sparked warnings that it represents a major win for the U.S. drug industry in blocking generic manufacturers and undermining the country's internationally acclaimed system for lowering pharmaceutical prices.
The funny thing about the free trade agreement with the United States is that Australians and Americans see it as being about completely different things. Australia's businesspeople see it as about eliminating the barriers to exports and imports between the two countries, which they regard as a good thing.
Kerryn Williams spoke to David Henry, clinical pharmacology professor at Newcastle University and former Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee member, about how the proposed US-Australia Free Trade Agreement will undermine the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and increase the price of medicine.
Re: Excluding Intellectual Property from negotiations over
a U.S.- Southern African Customs Union (SACU) Free Trade Agreement
Developing countries have entered into a large number of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) as well as free trade agreements (FTAs) that include explicit obligations for the protection of intellectual property rights as "investments".
