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Attached here is a letter from hundreds of civil society groups (representing millions of people worldwide) to members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) urging them to support the request and draft decision text proposed by the Least developed Countries (LDCs) to the WTO on extending the waiver that exempts LDCs from implementing the WTO-TRIPS agreement until they “graduate” from LDC status.

A lot is at stake for LDCs as TRIPS rules undermine human rights,development and health in developing countries. LDCs being the most vulnerable community should not be required to provide and maintain monopolies on essential goods.

The TRIPS Council will meet next week (5-6 March) to discuss this matter. There are indications that developed countries (US, EU, Australia etc) would like to severely limit the extension available to LDCs and focus more on LDCs’ compliance with IP rules in the TRIPS Agreement.

Please support by:

• Forwarding the Civil Society letter to government officials and stressing that they have a legal obligation to unconditionally grant the LDCs their request.
• Bringing this to the attention of media… the last thing that US and other negotiators who are looking undermine this want is “Attention.”

Attached here is

• A simple fact sheet highlighting the implications for LDCs
• The Civil society letter (in English and in French) supporting the request

The CSO letters are also available at www.twnside.org.sg