Govt to affirm CL stance in US

TRADE TALKS

The government will continue to impose compulsory licensing (CL) on essential but expensive drugs, Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot said yesterday.

This stance will be made clear during his meeting on Monday with the United States Trade Representative (USTR) in Washington without compromising efforts to improve Thailand's downgraded trade status, Mr Alongkorn told representatives of people with HIV/Aids and health activists who sought his clarification on the issue.

It was his first assurance since the news broke early this week that Thailand might scrap its CL policy on additional drugs as an inducement for the US to upgrade the country's trade status.

The CL policy was imposed by the Surayud Chulanont government, which was put in power by the leaders of the September 2006 coup. It allows the country to produce patented Aids and cancer drugs for non-commercial use without the consent of the patent owners, making the essential but costly drugs more affordable to the public.

The uproar followed a Feb 24 letter sent by the Commerce Ministry's Intellectual Property Department to the Public Health Ministry, detailing concerns among the US private sector, especially the pharmaceutical industry, about intellectual property (IP) rights violations in Thailand. The use of CL is among those concerns.

But Mr Alongkorn told the groups who met him yesterday the letter was a "misunderstanding". He already told the department chief, who signed the letter, that the message was just a suggestion for action, he said.

"The Commerce Ministry has no policy and no right to stop further use of compulsory licences on additional drugs," he said. "And our policy is the same as that taken by the prime minister, the Public Health Ministry and Deputy Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu."

The US administration in 2007 downgraded Thailand from the Watch List to Priority Watch List, citing increasing IP rights violations.

The USTR is conducting its annual review of the status of trading partners including Thailand. Lobbyists representing pharmaceutical firms reportedly want Washington to further downgrade Thailand to Priority Foreign Country listing.

Mr Alongkorn said the aim of his upcoming talks with US congressmen and senators along with congressional committees was to ensure Thailand would get maximum benefits from its trade with the US. There would also be other issues on the agenda, not just IP and CL, he added.

The IP issue should not be mixed with the drug policy, and the CL policy should not be included as grounds for downgrading Thailand's status since the policy was meant to help the poor, Mr Alongkorn said.

"I'll be there to exchange information, and to correct misunderstandings about intellectual property rights violations," said the deputy minister.

The government would insist that Thailand had a legal right, under the World Trade Organisation's agreement, to impose CL on some drugs, he said.