Impasse on Trips and public health

www.indianexpress.com Press Trust Of India

New Delhi, February 2: With WTO negotiations on Trips and public health hitting a road block over EU’s proposal, member countries are mooting a ‘cooling off period’ even as host nation Japan has prepared a new proposal to be tabled at the Tokyo mini-ministerial later this month.

Official sources told PTI here that this suggestion follows the failure to accept EU’s proposal to give the world health organisation (WHO) a role in assessing additional coverage of diseases at a special session held in geneva recently.

But the issue is expected to figure prominently at the forthcoming WTO mini-ministerial at Tokyo starting on February 14 where Japan would submit the proposal.

WHO has already indicated that it is not willing to take on the responsibility of assessing additional diseases. Sources said india supported the stand of Brazil, China and the African countries who questioned the diseases classified by EU’s trade commission Pascal Lamy in his letter dated January 7, addressed to all trade ministers.

Lamy had in his letter said that roping in the WHO could “produce an overall WTO decision with comprehensive scope but differentiated modalities of application”.