Thursday, 15 April, 2010 - 14:07

International agency Oxfam is calling on the New Zealand Government to break the pattern of secrecy in negotiations towards an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

The eighth round of negotiations is being held in Wellington this week, behind closed doors and dominated by the world's rich nations, with input from only two developing countries (Morocco and Mexico).

Public concern about the agreement has mainly focused on the invasion of privacy from proposed text that would force internet service providers to release information about suspected copyright infringers without a warrant.

But Oxfam warns that new rules for patents and trademarks are likely to include measures to block generic medicines from reaching poor people in developing countries.

Since 2008, customs officials in the EU have seized over 18 shipments of legal generic medicines from India and China to developing countries, including medicines to treat HIV and AIDS.

In spite of criticism from public health agencies, including the World Health Organisation, the EU is refusing to re-examine the regulation under which these seizures have been made.

The EU has gone even further and is now pushing to globalize this regulation through ACTA, despite the consequences it would have for access to medicines around the world.

These new rules will increase seizures and prosecution of companies who produce generic medicines legally for sale in other countries, including those not even engaged in ACTA negotiations.

"The ability for people living in extreme poverty to access lifesaving medicines must be more important than protecting profits for the world's biggest entertainment and pharmaceutical companies," said Oxfam New Zealand's Executive Director, Barry Coates. "Nearly everyone, both inside and outside the ACTA negotiations, is calling for greater transparency. The New Zealand-hosted round must establish a framework and process for open and constructive consultation," he added.

To date, negotiations for the ACTA treaty are not part of any international body. ACTA would establish a new international legal framework that countries can join on a voluntary basis and would create its own governing body outside existing international institutions such as the World Trade Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization or the United Nations.

Oxfam is calling on the New Zealand Government and ACTA negotiators to make a full commitment to transparency, with a concrete timetable to release the negotiating text for broader public scrutiny, a commitment to exclude patents from ACTA, and actions to limit possible consequences for access to medicines for poor countries. Oxfam believes the negotiations should be abandoned if these concerns are not addressed.

"With no say in these negotiations, people are rightly suspicious that narrow corporate interests will cause more legal, affordable medicines to be confiscated under the banner of 'Counterfeiting'," said Coates. "Try explaining this to a woman dying of AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. It's unjustifiable," he concluded.