21 August 2003
Brasilia, Brazil In November 2001, the 142 World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries gathered in Doha approved the TRIPS Agreement (Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights) and Public Health Declaration, which ratified the right of countries to protect the health and promote universal and equitable access to essential drugs. The Declaration recognizes the primacy of the right to public health over commercial interests, i.e., drugs should be treated differently from other goods and services. Two years after it was signed, the Declaration has not come into effect yet, basically as a result of the pressure put by the United States on the content of its chapter on Intellectual Property, thus evidencing that country's intention to prioritize commercial interests to the detriment of public health. This translates into a setback in the attempt to enforce the Declaration. At the same time, the United States entered into bilateral and regional negotiations with Latin American and Caribbean countries, with the aim of meeting the requirements provided for in the TRIPS Agreement. An attitude such as this distorts the Doha Declaration and inevitably implies restrictions on access to drugs. This strategy is accompanied by a series of domestic pressures on the region's countries, as seen in Chile, Colombia and Guatemala. With respect to the process to implement the Doha Declaration, the signatories to this document call on the governments that will be gathering in Cancun, Mexico, in the coming days, to reject any measures that may represent a setback in access to drugs. We therefore: – Reject any conditions regarding the implementation of the Doha Declaration and recognize the rights of all countries to define their own Public Health priorities as well as to establish the mechanisms needed to ensure it, as provide for in said Declaration. – Demand that any negotiations involving Intellectual Property Rights be excluded from bilateral and regional agreements, considering that such rights are already provided for in the TRIPS Agreement currently in force in the WTO. – Propose a review of the TRIPS Agreement with the aim of ensuring some of its provisions a greater degree of flexibility, particularly as regards the exclusion of drugs from its intellectual property regime. Signed by: ABIA – Associação Brasileira Interdisciplinar de AIDS, Brazil AMEDC - Asociación Mexicana de Estudios para la Defensa del Consumidor, Mexico Articulação de Mulheres Brasileiras, Brazil Asociación Agua Buena, Costa Rica Associação Brasileira de Economistas Domésticos –Ceará Section, Brazil CEBRIM- Centro Brasileiro de Informação sobre Medicamentos, Brazil Centro de Defesa do Consumidor do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil Centro para la Defensa del Consumidor y Acción para la Salud en El Salvador Conselho Federal de Farmácias, Brazil Conselho Regional de Farmácia da Bahia, Brazil Dirección de Medicamentos/Ministerio de Salud de Bolivia Fórum Nacional das Entidades Civis de Defesa do Consumidor, Brazil GAPA-RS – Grupo de Apoio e Prevenção à AIDS do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil HAI – Health Action International IDEC - Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa do Consumidor, Brazil IFARMA, Colômbia INESC – Instituto de Estudos Sócio-Econômicos, Brazil IPADECU - Instituto Panameño de Derecho de Consumidores y Usuarios, Panama Misión Salud, Colombia Movimento das Donas de Casa e Consumidores da Bahia, Brazil Movimento das Donas de Casa e Consumidores do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Movimento de Defesa do Consumidor de Rondônia, Brazil MSF - Médecins Sans Frontière Núcleo de Assistência Farmacêutica – Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Brazil Oxfam International REBRIP – Rede Brasileira pela Integração dos Povos, Brazil SOBRAVIME – Sociedade Brasileira de Vigilância e Medicamentos, Brazil