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by
Naomi Klein
October
13, 2003
Fighting
AIDS was supposed to show George W. Bush's softer side. "Seldom has
history offered a greater opportunity to do so much for so many," he said
in his State of the Union address this past January.
He
has since reconsidered, deciding instead to offer a few more opportunities to
the few. First he handed the top job of his Global AIDS initiative to a Big
Pharma boss, then he broke his $3 billion promise of AIDS relief and now there
are concerns that he may sabotage a plan to send cheap drugs to countries
ravaged by AIDS.
This
past August, the World Trade Organization announced a new deal on drug patents
that was supposed to give poor countries facing health problems the right to
import generic drugs. But the deal seemed unworkable: the United States, at the
behest of the pharmaceutical lobby, had successfully pushed for so many
conditions that the agreement exploded from a straightforward fifty-two words
to a sprawling 3,200-word maze.
Countries
wanting to import cheap generics must jump through multiple hoops to prove they
are truly in need, unable to afford patented drugs and incapable of producing
the medicines domestically. Meanwhile, there is no guarantee that there will be
a sufficient supply of drugs for them to buy, since the deal also puts up
hurdles for countries wanting to export.
"A
'gift' tightly bound in red tape," declared a coalition of NGOs, including
Médecins Sans Frontières and Third World Network.
Perhaps
that's why US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick praised the agreement. So
did Harvey Bale, the premier spokesman for Big Pharma and director general of
the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations.
Bale, who had lobbied against the deal, told Reuters that the latest neutering
resulted in "a fairly balanced text" that "adds clarity."
But
now something unexpected is happening. The Canadian government, under intense
pressure from AIDS activists and the United Nations, is trying to put the WTO
agreement into practice. In September, the government announced plans to amend
its patent law to allow the manufacture of generic versions of patented drugs
exclusively for export to poor countries.
African
AIDS groups have hailed the plan as a breakthrough, especially if it spurs more
countries to suspend patent protections to export generic drugs to countries in
need. And the need is huge. Of the roughly 30 million Africans with HIV, 4.1
million need antiretroviral drugs, yet only 50,000-75,000 have access to them.
The World Health Organization has pledged to get 3 million people into
treatment by 2005. That would require a minimum of 6 million pills a day, a
demand that cannot be met by the current generic drug suppliers alone.
All
of a sudden, Harvey Bale is not pleased. The agreement he praised when it was
just a feel-good press release is now, according to Bale's recent statements, a
"dead end" and "window dressing," resulting in a
"negative black eye for Canada."
Bale
has pulled out all of Big Pharma's favourite myths: Africa doesn't need cheap
drugs, it needs infrastructure (it needs both); brand name companies have
already slashed their prices to compete with generics (discounted brand
versions are still at least twice as expensive); weakening patents will hurt
corporate profits and destroy the incentive for new research (Africa accounts
for roughly 1 percent of the $400 billion pharmaceutical industry's total
sales).
Now
that the pharmaceutical lobby has let its opposition be known, all eyes are on are
Washington. Will the United States try to block the Canadian initiative or
water it down-and if so, how?
Canadian
officials say they fear that the Bush Administration's weapon will be the North
American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA permits governments to suspend drug
patents if the drugs are "predominantly" for domestic purposes but
makes no explicit allowances for exports to other countries.
For
the past two years, US trade negotiators have haggled over the details of the
WTO drug deal, eventually signing it. If the United States now uses NAFTA to
kill or weaken the plan just when promises are turning into medicines, it would
be a staggering display of bad faith, even by Bush standards.
Any
government considering joining the Free Trade Area of the Americas should be
hearing deafening alarm bells right now. The patent protections in the draft
FTAA agreement are even tougher than those in NAFTA; if it is adopted, as the
Bush Administration hopes, the United States could try to block affordable drug
exports anywhere in the Americas. Put simply, the Administration is rigging
bilateral and regional trade deals to undermine any attempt by poor countries
to exercise their rights in the multilateral sphere.
Canada
could well win a NAFTA challenge, but there is no indication that Ottawa is up
for the fight. Paul Martin, the man set to become Canada's next Prime Minister,
has stated that Canada's "number one challenge is keeping that American
border open." If it looks like the AIDS drug initiative would place that
goal in jeopardy, the Canadian government's newfound courage could quickly
evaporate.
At
a press conference on October 7, Zoellick left the door open for a NAFTA
challenge, calling Canada's plan a "very fine step" but adding,
"we, of course, would expect that Canada would maintain the rules we
agreed on."
Bush's
AIDS strategy is far less ambiguous. His $3 billion a year AIDS pledge has been
whittled down to $2 billion, possibly much less. And on October 3, the Senate
approved Bush's choice to head his global AIDS initiative: Randall Tobias,
former CEO of drug giant Eli Lilly, charter member of the industry group
leading the charge against the Canadian plan.
Tobias's
appointment is a bit like trusting the CEO of ExxonMobil to lead a government
effort to promote solar power. The Bush Administration insists that Tobias, who
is holding on to his Eli Lilly stock, will not use the job to do Big Pharma's
bidding and will support the use of generics if they are cheaper.
The
first test will be whether Randall Tobias joins his old friend Harvey Bale to
declare war on an initiative that could save millions of lives.
Naomi Klein is a leading anti-sweatshop
activist, and author of Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines
of the Globalization Debate? (Picador, 2002) and No Logo: Taking Aim at
the Brand Bullies (Picador, 2000). Visit the No Logo website: www.nologo.org.
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