Day May 1, 2018

Special 301: U.S. Gov’t “Watch List” Threatens Access to Meds

[Public Citizen] Special 301 is an annual report by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) which places countries on a “watch list” if USTR would like to see greater changes in their intellectual property rules or enforcement practice.The USTR articulates in past Special 301 Reports that “the United States respects a trading partner’s right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all,” and “the United States respects its trading partners’ rights to grant compulsory licenses in a manner consistent with the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement.” However, in these same reports, USTR has frequently criticized countries for exercising public health rights and other flexibilities enshrined in the TRIPS Agreement and Doha Declaration. Every year the USTR hears public comments on the Special 301 review.

Lies, Distortions, and False Promise: The U.S. Position on Compulsory Licenses in the 2018 Special 301 Report

[Brook Baker] Once again the U.S. is unbelievably duplicitous in its 2018 Special 301 Report on permissible uses of compulsory and government use licenses by its trading partners, including most recently Colombia and Malaysia where it is announcing out-of-cycle reviews.  On the one hand, the USTR pays lip service to the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, saying that “the United States respects a trading partner’s right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all” (p. 33) and that it supports use of the so-called Paragraph 6 compulsory licensing system (p. 34), which has only been used once in 15 years.  However, it has withdrawn a statement in its 2017 Special 301 Report that “the United States respects its trading partners’ rights to grant compulsory licenses in a manner consistent with the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement and the Doha Declaration … ” On the other hand, the U.S. issued a broadside assault on the actual issuance of, or even discussion of compulsory licenses in a Report replete with lies, distortions, and false promises.