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Health and Livelihood Rights Should Have Priority Over Intellectual Property Rights!!

Criticism against the TRIPs Agreement (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) is steadily increasing in Korea. Last week on Wednesday, a small campaign against the TRIPs Agreement was organized by various social activists including KoPA, People's Solidarity for Social Progress(PSSP), People's Health Coalition and IP Left. The demonstration took place in front of the Government Complex, at the same time that the 6th TRIPs Agreement Council was on going in Geneva. The protestors demanded the amendment and a "pro-public health" interpretation of the TRIPs Agreement in favour of securing people's affordable access to medicines.

"The TRIPs Agreement should not undermine national sovereignty and the right of individual government to be able to decide and manage the scope and type of patent on medicine in accordance with its own social and economic situation", the participants argued. They also demanded that the WTO and its Members must adopt a "pro-public health" interpretation of the TRIPs Agreement through a flexible use of existing safeguards and exceptions, including the right of countries to grant compulsory licences for local manufacturing and to allow parallel imports.

Jung Hye-Joo, a member of People's Health Coalition said, "the TRIPs Agreement Council which is being held in Geneva, should not undermine the right of member countries to grant compulsory licences in the interest of the public". Recently, US made a complaint at the WTO against the Brazilian patent law, which enables the granting of compulsory licences to enable "local working" of a patent adopted to tackle the wide-spread AIDS in the country. Although eventually the US withdrew its complaint, manoeuvres such as the one US made, have been repeated whenever member countries including Brazil and South Africa took action to protect their public health.

Every day, around 37,000 persons die from the patent and intellectual property rights regime. Whenever a patent on medicine is prolonged another day, pharmaceutical companies gain a profit of 250,000 US dollars. This means that pharmaceutical companies are playing a game to get more money at the cost of people's lives, especially those of the Third World.

The TRIPs Agreement was originally designed as a tool only for the benefit of TNCs, backed by the developed countries. Patent and intellectual property rights are very harmful to the development of Third World countries, because they forbid free-transferring of advanced technology. Moreover, they act as key institutional measures for TNCs and developed countries to exploit natural and cultural resources of the Third World. This regime is nothing but a method for imperialist forces to continue their past colonial exploitation of the Third World, though now they have found a more 'sophisticated' way of doing it - justified by its rule-based system but just as disastrous as it was in the past.

This is why international social movements have protested against the TRIPs Agreement. However, despite its importance, the TRIPs Agreement has not been properly addressed and protested in Korea. Most local activists have little recognition of its negative effects and there hasn't been a situation that directly manifested its disastrous effects. In this sense, the campaign organized last week was certainly meaningful and significant.

The amendment to the present TRIPs Agreement or a more progressive interpretation and implementation of it does have some significance, in the sense that it soothes down the disastrous effects of the WTO. However, this 'strategy' has definite limits. We have already seen the result of mere inclusion and regulation within the framework of free trade organizations, of the so-called social clauses such as those on labour and environment. The WTO regime is deteriorating the lives of the people around the world, by putting under its logic of 'free trade' the basic needs and rights of the people such as agriculture, public services and environment. Therefore, 'reforms' within the TRIPs Agreement can only have significance when considered together with a long-term strategy of exempting patents on all living and essential medicines from the TRIPs Agreement and taking the TRIPs Agreement out of the WTO all together. And eventually, dismantling the WTO. [PICIS]