Come clean on EU trade pact

Come clean on EU trade pact

The charter has made it very clear. If the government wants to enter into an international trade agreement which will have a big impact on society and public well-being, it must reveal the information and organise public hearings for stakeholders before getting approval from parliament.

The key words are transparency and public interest. It is a cause of worry, therefore, that the Pheu Thai Party-led government _ in its eagerness to ink a bilateral trade agreement with the European Union _ is bypassing policy transparency and the public interest by withholding information from the public on how gravely the agreement stands to affect public access to affordable medicine.

In addition, the government is also showing an intention to bypass the mandatory public hearings altogether.

Consumers and public health civic groups are crying foul. On the issue of drugs' intellectual property rights, it has been Thailand's policy all along not to concede more than what is required by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which still allows member countries to produce life-saving generic drugs to deal with public health crises such as the HIV and Aids epidemic.

The EU, however, is pressing Thailand to give absolute protection to a drug's clinical test data for a period of five years regardless of patent status.

Called data exclusivity, this provision goes way beyond the WTO's requirements and will stop its trade partners from producing generic medicines altogether.

As a result, the multi-national pharmaceutical companies will have a monopoly on power to set prices and maximise profits. The price of medicines, therefore, will be kept unaffordably high, causing unnecessary deaths.

If Thailand acquiesces to EU pressure, it will have to give the same blanket data exclusivity protection to other trading partners too. Eventually, the country will lose the compulsory licensing opportunity allowed by the WTO to address a public health emergency. Again, more unnecessary deaths.

Yet at a high-level policy meeting last week, the Department of Trade Negotiations dismissed public health concerns and reportedly told Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong that Thailand needs to be "more flexible" and accept the EU's request on clinical-test data exclusivity in exchange for export benefits. According to the trade negotiators, the impact on public access to affordable medicines will be minimal.

This policy recommendation faces heavy criticism from public health activists because it contradicts the findings of several studies and the experience of other countries. The Thailand Development Research Institute has advised against accepting the EU's data exclusivity request because it will gravely affect public access to affordable medicines. Another study shows the five-year data exclusivity protection will cost the country at least 80 billion baht more in drug expenses.

Early this week, consumers and public health civic groups petitioned the government to reveal the details of the proposed Thailand-EU free trade agreement and to seek public consultation before making any policy move. Silence was the answer. This is not acceptable.

It is a short-sighted policy to exchange the public health of the majority for the economic gains of relatively few. It is also the duty of the government to respect the constitution's mandates on policy transparency and public consultation. If the government does not want the Thailand-EU trade deal to lose legal legitimacy, it must respect the constitution and protect the public interest. In short, it must do the right thing.

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