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Even as the 12th round of negotiations of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) are progressing in Australia, Asia-Pacific health groups like APN+ have expressed grave concern over the potential adverse impact of these negotiations on intellectual property and investment provisions which go far beyond the WTO's TRIPS Agreement and will have a severe, adverse impact on public health and access to medicines in the region and globally.
The health groups are concerned that the RCEP negotiations may include provisions that override or hamper the use of TRIPS flexibilities by developing and least developed countries in the negotiations. Known as TRIPSplus provisions, these provisions require developing and least developed countries to agree to intellectual property obligations far in excess of those required by the TRIPS Agreement.
The RCEP negotiating countries include developed countries (Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea), developing countries (China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei Darussalam) and least developed countries (Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos).
“We are extremely alarmed after reviewing the IP and investment chapters being negotiated as part of RCEP and in particular note that Japan and South Korea are demanding intellectual property protections from the developing countries of ASEAN and from India and China beyond that required by the World Trade Organisation (WTO),” said Shiba Phurailatpam of Asia Pacific Network of people living with HIV and AIDS (APN+).
“It is well known that China produces the raw materials for most pharmaceutical manufacturing in the world, India is the leader in formulations and rightly referred to as the pharmacy of the developing world and the Thai GPO is a leader in regional generic production. The RCEP is a trap for the countries with the most globally significant generic manufacturing and this one trade agreement will place the lives and health of millions firmly in the grip and at the mercy of multinational pharmaceutical companies," he added.
Calling on the RCEP countries to remove any TRIPS-plus discussions from the negotiations and to take the lead in setting a positive agenda that places health before the profits of the corporate sector, the health groups said that according to the leaked IP and investment chapters, several TRIPS-plus provisions appear to be on the table that adversely impact public health and access to medicines including data exclusivity, patent term extensions, weakened patentability criteria, accelerated patent examination, technical assistance, weakened patent exceptions, border measures, injunctions and damages, other IP enforcement measures, WTO-plus dispute settlement on TRIPS and investor protection rules.
The health groups also called on the RCEP negotiating countries to focus their negotiations on a positive agenda on issues related to
intellectual property, research and development, increasing access to safe, effective and affordable generic medicines and prioritising the right to health.
They also called on RCEP negotiating countries Not to include any TRIPS-plus provisions in the intellectual property chapter; Not to include investment protection provisions that allow companies to sue governments in secret, private arbitration over domestic health policies; Commit to the inclusion of the full extent of TRIPS flexibilities in the laws of RCEP countries; Commit to supporting developing and least developed countries in using TRIPS flexibilities; and Commit to supporting the full use of the TRIPS implementation extension period till 2021 and the pharmaceuticals transition period till 2033 for LDCs.
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