US-Thail clash over IP and drugs rights Abbot give way!

"TRADE PRIVILEGES - US set to strike back over rights - The Nation

Tariff downgrade over violations will hit Thai exporters

Many Thai exports to the United States are expected to lose tariff privileges today, when Washington places the Kingdom on its intellectual-property Priority Watch List.

An announcement of the downgrade was expected early this morning Thailand time and comes in the wake of inadequate protection of intellectual-property rights.

The downgrade comes with stiff trade retaliations.

The US Embassy in Bangkok is scheduled to hold a news conference later today.

However, local officials expect Thailand to be downgraded to priority-watch status, because of conflicts between the Public Health Ministry and US drug companies following the Kingdom's decision to invoke World Trade Organisation rules allowing it override patent protection on selected drugs.

In addition, worsening copyright violation of audio-visual products further hamper Thailand's chance of being spared retaliatory action, says international-trade experts.

Commerce Minister Krirk-krai Jirapaet believes Thailand will be downgraded, because influential companies are pressuring the US government. These companies accuse Thailand of being slow in stamping out intellectual-property violations.

Many US companies and trade groups - including Levi Strauss, Philip Morris, the Cable Broad-

casting Satellite Association of Asia and the American Apparel and Footwear Association - are urging Washington to punish Thailand for growing product counterfeiting. Of most concern are brand-name apparel and accessories and audiovisual products.

The Washington-based US-Asean Business Council yesterday expressed concern that the downgrade would hit US investors and their trading partners.

Krirk-krai said council president Matthew Daley was afraid Thailand would be downgraded as a result of the compulsory licensing of drugs.

Daley and other US businessmen in Thailand - particularly new entrants - are anxiously awaiting final wording of amendments to the Foreign Business Act....."

Full article: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/05 ... 033108.php

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Excellent. And well-deserved.

The only thing I hope to come out of this is for the dollar to come back up to = 40 baht

The only thing I hope to come out of this is for the dollar to come back up to = 40 baht

I'm setting my sights higher, but yeah, I'd "settle for" B40 = US$1.

[Hmmm]

The junta and Thai government never miss an opportunity to blame Thaksin for Thailand's current woes, such as this unfortunate event. Strangely perhaps, there may be something to it ...
http://bangkokpundit.blogspot.com/

US put Thailand on priority watch list - The Nation

Thailand has joined China, India and nine other countries that top the US list of worst offenders of international copyright rules, the US government said. The other countries are Russia, Egypt, Argentina, Chile, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela.

The annual "Special 301 report," issued by the US Trade Representative's office Monday, placed the countries on a special "priority watch list" that will be monitored to "encourage and maintain" effective intellectual property rights protections. Another 31 countries were put on lower levels of monitoring.

Only Thailand is new to the priority watch list this year, reflecting a concern that the past year has been characterised by an overall deterioration in the protection and enforcement of copyright laws. It pointed out that Thai officials have worked "amid challenging circumstances" to enforce the law. But the efforts "appear not to have had a measurable effect on piracy and counterfeiting rates". US trade officials singled out Thailand's lack of control over optical disc media (DVDs).
Piracy of trademarked products like footwear, books, business software, cable and signals were also cited.

According to the report, Thailand had insufficient penalties for violations, and there were indications of a further "weakening of respect" for patents such as pharmaceutical products.

The report said in China, an estimated 85 to 93 per cent of all copyrighted material sold is thought to be pirated. Russian piracy sales have robbed US copyright holders of an estimated US$2.1 billion last year.

Chile and Venezuela remain on the top priority list because of failure to make progress in enforcement and cooperation, and increasing levels of piracy, the report said.

Egypt has improved its systems, especially in modernising its infrastructure and training key personnel such as judges and civil inspectors. But Israel "appears to have left unchanged its intellectual property regime."

The Nation

The Nation

HIV groups to march on embassy; lobbyist linked to Thaksin PR firm

A rally will be held in front of the US Em-bassy in Bangkok today by the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/Aids, to protest the US Trade Representative's decision to downgrade Thailand's trade status.

Thailand's downgrade to the US Priority Watch List over copyright violations is widely seen as retaliation against the Public Health Ministry's move to enforce compulsory licensing on certain drugs - including an Aids medicine sold by a US-based company.

"We have found that the affected company hired a lobbyist firm - USA for Innovation - that recently spread false information about Thailand's compulsory-licensing process," Aids Access Foundation director Nimit Tienudom said yesterday.

He added that this lobbyist firm was also linked to ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra. "However, I don't know whether Thaksin is involved in the misleading campaign," Nimit said.

The executive director of USA for Innovation is Ken Adelman, who is also a senior adviser to Edelman Public Relations, which is also used by Merck, Abbot Laboratories, Sanofi - and Thaksin Shinawatra.

The Aids Access Foundation and the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/Aids are among non-governmental organisations that relea-sed a joint statement supporting the Public Health Ministry's move to enforce compulsory licensing.

Many academics, including Samlee Jaidee and Chulalongkorn University lecturers Wittaya Kul-somboon and Jiraporn Limpana-nont, also signed the statement.

The statement urged all government units to be united in the compulsory licensing.

"In particular, the Foreign Affairs and Commerce ministries should fully cooperate with the Public Health Ministry in explaining that the compulsory-licensing process has been in line with Thai law and international rules тАж don't alienate the Public Health Ministry," the statement read.

An informed source disclosed that USA for Innovation - which claims to be a non-profit organisation - recently launched a campaign about violations of US intellectual-property rights that contained misleading information.

For example, the campaign alleged that Thailand was going to enforce compulsory licensing "on 30 medicines".

"It's untrue," Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla yesterday said in response to the allegation.

He insisted that his ministry had announced breaking the patents of three medicines only. Of them, only the compulsory-licensing process for the HIV/Aids drug efavirenz, sold by US-based global pharmaceutical giant Merck under the trade names Sustiva and Stocrin, had already been completed.

The Public Health Ministry has been in negotiations with the patent-holders of two other medicines.

"We have never aggressively enforced compulsory licensing. We've always asked for compassion for the patients," Mongkol said.

Compulsory licensing is permitted under World Trade Organisation rules in national emergencies or justified non-commercial cases. Patent-holders can receive some royalties.

Mongkol said he would fly to the US later this month to explain the rationale behind the compulsory licensing and meet with US drug companies, senators and the US Trade Representative, with arrangements to be made by the Foreign Ministry.

The public-health minister also confirmed that Thailand would join 15 other developing countries and the Clinton Foundation in the bulk buying of drugs, so that they could be bought cheaper.

All of the countries have enforced compulsory licensing.

"The government's compulsory-licensing move wins our full support. This is a move to manufacture life-saving medicines. Thailand needs to move on, because this is the hope of countries all over the world," Wirat Purahong, chairman of the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/Aids, said yesterday.

He believes other countries could lose ground in negotiations with the US if Thailand backs down.

Wirat yesterday led a group of HIV-positive people in offering moral support to Mongkol na Songkhla.

Mongkol thanked the supporters with a vow to push ahead with compulsory licensing. "I will carry on. I will never abandon the patients, and I definitely will not lose heart," Mongkol said.

The US Embassy in Bangkok, however, insisted the downgrade stemmed from widespread violations of copyrights on audiovisual products."

The Nation

Aids activists lash out at US - Bangkok Post

Bangkok (TNA, dpa)
Activists of the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/Aids have called for retaliation against the United States, and for the US to be placed on a "watch list" for violating international sovereignty and patients' rights worldwide.

The puckish yet angry suggestion came after the US Trade Representative placed Thailand on a 12-nation "Priority Watch List" for intellectual property piracy.

Dozens of network members, with representatives of the Aids Access Foundation, on Thursday gathered at the US Embassy and denounced Washington's move as an action taken for commercial purposes only, disregarding morality and human lives.

They said the US accusation of Thailand's failure to sufficiently protect American producers from widespread piracy lacked factual information.

"Evil USA stop threatening access to treatment in Thailand," said one of the banners.

Some protesters rebuked the US trade pressure while praising the Thai government for standing up to the pharmaceutical industry.

"We condemn America because they only think of their own interests," said Nimitr Tien-Udom, director of Aids Access Foundation. He said Aids activists in Thailand had been calling on governments to enforce compulsory licencing on anti-viral drugs since 1999, but their appeals had been ignored by previous administrations.

The demonstrators said they were determined to closely monitor every step the US takes on the matter, and that they called on Aids networks around the world to place the US on a symbolic "Priority Watch List" of their own for violating other countries' sovereignty and human rights for attempting to deprive patients and the poor in developing and undeveloped countries worldwide of access to medicine.

Virat Poorahong, head of the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/Aids, called on Thailand's ministries of foreign affairs and commerce to give clear support tof the Ministry of Public Health's application of compulsory licencing of medicines for better living of patients and the poor, procedures which he said were clearly indicated by WTO procedures.

The network said they believed Public Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla would not change his position regarding the application.

Should Dr Mongkol change his stance, his credibility among the Thai public would definitely fall, Mr Virat said.

Last November, Dr Mongkol issued a compulsory licence for Merck's HIV/Aids treatment drug Efavirenz followed by the second-line combination anti-retroviral therapy Kaletra and the heart disease drug Plavix in January. He explained that his action was in accord with the WTO decision which allows developing countries to produce or import generic versions of patented drugs for government use.

There are an estimated 800,000 people living with HIV in Thailand, and more than one million have died from Aids since it was first detected in the population in 1986. Of the 800,000 HIV patients some 100,000 patients receive medical treatment with anti-viral drugs but of these some 10 per cent are already drug-resistant.

Thailand's unorthodox use of the compulsory clause, which HIV/Aids victims and even the World Health Organization (WHO) have condoned, was one of the main reasons the US on Monday put the kingdom on its "priority watch list," a status which may have an adverse impact on Thai exports to the US in the near future.

"The USA is a developed country but their brains have not been developed," said Mr Virat.""

Bangkok Post

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

I mean you can't have huge corporations like Adidas having their goods made in China for slave wages and retailing them for inflated prices when countries like Thailand expose them for what they are...gigantic rip-of merchants.

Thais welcome Brazil patent-breaking - Bangkok Post
By Peter Janssen and Chalerm Jiramo
Bangkok (dpa)

HIV/Aids activists on Saturday welcomed Brazil's decision to break patent protection for a drug used to treat Aids, because Thailand is no longer alone in its battle against pharmaceutical giants. "It's a very good development because it means that Thailand has more friends in this fight," said Jon Ungphakorn, secretary-general of the Aids Access Foundation. "I hope other developing countries follow suit."

On Friday, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed the relevant decree in Brasilia awarding compulsory licensing for the medication Efavirenz produced by US pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp & Dohme in the South American country. The move follows Thailand's decision to break the patent on Efavirenz in November last year. Thailand in January also applied compulsory licensing - a legal action to break patent protection allowed under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules - on Kaletra, another anti-HIV/Aids drug made by US firm Abbott Laboratories, and Plavis, a blood-thinning drug made by Sanofi-Aventis.

The Asian nation has suffered the consequences.

Last week the US Trade Representative Office put Thailand on its "Priority Watch List" for intellectual property rights infringements, reportedly in response to pressure from the US pharmaceutical industry.

Thai Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla is scheduled to visit Washington this week to explain the kingdom's reasons for breaking the patents on the drugs in an attempt to get Thailand off the priority watch list, which opens the country up to trade penalties through the loss of so-called General System of Preferences privileges.

With some 600,000 HIV/Aids patients in Thailand, Mongkol insists that the ministry will go ahead with breaking the patents on HIV/Aids drugs unless their prices come down significantly. "We can't give in. There are too many lives at stake," Mongkol told reporters.

While in the US he will also visit New York to sign an agreement with the Clinton Foundation and 16 other developing countries for bulk purchases of essential drugs at cheap prices.

Full article http://www.bangkokpost.net/topstories/t ... ?id=118542