Without ever mentioning the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations directly, a new issue brief by UNDP and UNAIDS strongly criticizes all of the major proposals on medicines issues included in the U.S. proposal that was leaked last year.
[Click here for the full report.]
This report gives added ammunition to the opponents of the U.S. approach, which appears to include all of the eight non-U.S. countries in the TPP negotiation as well as a broad global civil society coalition.
The opposition of Geneva-based multilateral institutions to U.S. policy promoting TRIPS-plus restrictions on access to affordable medicines in developing countries is well known and widespread. To this statement from UNDP and UNAIDS could be added many others by UN human rights organizations, the World Intellectual Property Organization, United Nations Committee on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and even the World Trade Organization. Indeed, the resistance of multilateral organizations to the U.S. agenda on access to medicines issues is one reason why the U.S. has regime shifted its agenda into bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements. The right thing for the U.S. to do would be to remove TRIPS plus commitments on access to medicines issues from its trade agenda. It does not, however, appear to be close to that position to date.
