4th Ministerial, Doha 2001

The WTO General Council late Tuesday 6 December approved an amendment to the TRIPS Agreement making permanent a decision originally adopted in 2003 to resolve the problem of supply of generic versions of pharmaceutical products to countries with inadequate manufacturing capacity, due to limitations in the TRIPS Agreement when using compulsory license.

The latest draft is more interesting for what it omits than what it has added. The cover note that was attached to the 1 December draft has been removed.

Intense and rushed formal and informal consultations have been taking place since last Friday 2 December to find agreement among WTO Members on the content of an amendment to the TRIPS Agreement, which is to constitute a 'permanent solution' for facilitating the supply of medicines to countries with insufficient or no drug manufacturing capacity.

As delegates from Geneva prepared to leave for Hong Kong (some of them via their own capitals), many were uncertain how the WTO's Ministerial meeting would be run, and how much negotiations are to be expected on the key issues, as against stock-taking and planning the post-Hong Kong schedule.

Kenyan civil society is calling upon the Government to ensure that the upcoming World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial in Hong Kong puts development issues at the forefront.

With only days left before the World Trade Organization holds its sixth ministerial meeting in Hong Kong, a new report claims that the agreements reached at these trade negotiations pose a threat to people and their environment around the world.