TWN
Info Service on UN Sustainable Development (Oct16/08)
17 October 2016
Third World Network
An open letter to the sixteen governments negotiating the Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)
17
October 2016
http://
http://bilaterals.org/?an-open-letter-to-the-sixteen&var_mode=calcul
Health organisations call on trade ministers to reject provisions
that would negatively affect access to generic medicines in the Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement.
The
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a free trade
agreement (FTA) currently under negotiation between the ten member
states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (Brunei,
Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and countries with existing FTAs with
ASEAN which includes Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and
New Zealand.
The
RCEP includes an intellectual property (IP) chapter with measures
that threaten access to life saving essential medicines. Even though
it does not include the United States, many of provisions appear to
have been borrowed from the US-Korea free trade agreement and the
Trans Pacific Partnership agreement. In April 2016, a leaked IP chapter
(dated October 2015) verified that South Korea and Japan were pushing
for data exclusivity, a measure that could delay regulatory approval
for medicines that are off patent, and provisions that will lengthen
medicine patent monopoly periods. This will only serve to delay the
market entry of affordable generic medicines and goes well beyond
the intellectual property protections required by the World Trade
Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS).
This
chapter is of particular concern as India’s IP laws attempt to strike
a fair balance between the rights of the patent holders and the need
to provide affordable medicines to its citizens and people in the
developing world. India is the world’s largest producer of generic
medicines and supplies more than 80% of generic anti-retro viral (ARV)
medicine to treat HIV in low and middle income (LMIC) countries. Its
generic medicine industry has reduced the cost of ARV medicines over
time by up to 98%, vastly increasingly access to medicines for those
most in need. If India is forced to sign onto TRIPS plus measures,
access to affordable generics of new essential medicines for a number
of diseases for the world’s poorest people in Sub Saharan Africa and
other low and middle income countries will be seriously compromised.
For example Malaysia provides Indian generic ARVs free of charge to
their HIV positive population. It is highly unlikely that Malaysia
could afford to sustain their HIV treatment program if they are unable
to access Indian generics. RCEP also includes several LMIC that have
large populations and economic pressures to ensure affordable access
to medicines, such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, China
and Vietnam. Least developed country (LDC) members Laos, Cambodia,
and Myanmar are struggling to provide affordable access to medicines
and have an extension in the WTO on pharmaceutical IP protection until
2033 (and are eligible to extend this period for as long as they are
LDCs).
UNAIDS
reports that only a third of the people in the Asia and Pacific region
who need HIV treatment currently have access. If RCEP countries agree
to elevated IP protection in RCEP, this figure could likely increase.
There
is no justification for an intellectual property chapter in regional
trade agreements such as the RCEP. We call on all negotiating governments
to reject all TRIPS plus measures in the RCEP. In particular we call
upon wealthier countries such as South Korea, Japan, Australia and
New Zealand to resist pressing for IP provisions that threaten access
to medicines for the world’s poor.
Signatory civil society organisations
Organisation
RCEP country
MSF Access Campaign
Global
International Grail Global Justice Network
Global
People’s Health Movement
Global
Public Services International - Oceania
Regional
Asia Pacific Research Network
Regional
Public Health Association of Australia
Australia
MSF Doctors Without Borders Australia
Australia
Australian Health Promotion Association
Australia
Caritas Australia
Australia
Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network
Australia
Community and Public Sector Union/SPSF
Australia
NSW Nurses and Midwives Association
Australia
Finance Sector Union of Australia
Australia
Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Justice and Peace Centre Australia
Pax Christi Australia
Australia
Edmund Rice Centre
Australia
Catholic Religious Australia
Australia
Grail Australia Global Justice Network
Australia
N.S.W Retired Teachers’ Association
Australia
Institute of the Sisters of Mercy Australia
Australia
Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes in NSW Australia
Textile Clothing & Footwear Union of Australia
Australia
Combined Pensioners & Superannuants Association
Australia
Retired Unionists Network
Australia
Sutherland Shire Environment Centre
Australia
Sisters of St Joseph
Australia
De La Salle Brothers
Australia
SS Peter & Paul Catholic Parish Social Justice Group Australia
Bandanh Chatomok National MSM and TG network
Cambodia
Cambodian People living with HIV Network- Takeo
Cambodia
Cambodian Health Committee
Cambodia
Southeast Asia Development Program (SADP)
Cambodia
Committee to Promote Women in Politics
Cambodia
Social Action for Change
Cambodia
SILAKA
Cambodia
Women's Network for Unity
Cambodia
CamASEAN Youth's Future
Cambodia
Gender and Development for Cambodia
Cambodia
Worker's Information Center
Cambodia
The Messenger Band
Cambodia
Women's Network for Unity
Cambodia
Khmer HIV/AIDS NGO Alliance
Cambodia
Rainbow Community Kampuchea
Cambodia
ARV Users Association
Cambodia
KORSANG
Cambodia
National Coalition of PLHIV in India - NCPI+
India
The Delhi Network of Positive people
India
National Coalition of People living with HIV in India India
UPNPplus
India
MGNP+
India
Maharajganj Positive Network
India
Maharaja DLN
India
Network of Maharashtra by People Living With HIV/AIDS - NMP+ India
Indonesia AIDS Coalition
Indonesia
la via campesina indonesia
Indonesia
Pacific Asia Resource Center (PARC)
Japan
Third World Network
Malaysia
Malaysian AIDS Council
Malaysia
Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control (MCTC)
Malaysia
Pertubuhan Islah Movement
Malaysia
Positive Malaysian Treatment Access & Advocacy Group (MTAAG+)
Malaysia
Consumers Association of Penang
Malaysia
Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Friends of the Earth Malaysia) Malaysia
Cooperative Committee of Trade Union
Myanmar
Mana Movement
New Zealand
The Mana Party
New Zealand
New Zealand Nurses Organisation
New Zealand
Public Health Association of New Zealand
New Zealand
IBON Foundation
Philippines
Social Watch Philippines
Philippines
People’s Health Movement Philippines
Philippines
Knowledge Commune
South Korea
IPLEFT
South Korea
CHSC (Center for Health and Social Change)
South Korea
KFHR (Koean Federation of Medical Action Groups for Health rights)
South Korea
People’s Health Movement KOREA
South Korea
Korean pharmacists for democracy society
South Korea
People's Health Institute
South Korea
Solidarity for HIV/AIDS Human Rights-NANURI+
South Korea
Trade Commission of MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society
South Korea
Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group (TTAG)
Thailand
Thai Network of People living with HIV/AIDS (TNP+) Thailand
Alternative Agriculture Network (AAN)
Thailand
Renal Failure Patient Group
Thailand
AIDS ACCESS Foundation
Thailand
Foundation for AIDS Rights
Thailand
Foundation for Consumers
Thailand
Rural Pharmacy Association
Thailand
Drug Study Group
Thailand
BioThai Foundation
Thailand
Ecological Alert and Recovery – Thailand (EARTH)
Thailand
Thai Holistic Health Foundation
Thailand
FTA Watch
Thailand
Foundation for Women
Thailand
Vietnam Network of People living with HIV
Vietnam
