By: Agence | France Presse
DOHA, Nov 11 Three non-governmental organisations headed by Oxfam International handed the WTO a petition signed by 32,000 people from around the world Sunday that urged the global trade body to "put health before wealth."
In a brief ceremony attended only by a couple of journalists, an Oxfam representative delivered the petition to World Trade Organization Director General Mike Moore.
Moore shook hands with Oxfam representative and said he would "make sure that WTO members and his staff know about the petition." The text "tells the world they should do a deal at Doha here, which would give affordable access to medicines for the world's poorest nations," explained Oxfam International advocacy director Phil Twyford, who works for the international aid agency in Washington.
The campaign to collect signatures took place in the weeks ahead of the opening here last Friday of a WTO ministerial conference to expand global trade.
The signatures were also gathered by NGOs Health Gap Coalition and Third World Network.
Oxfam International also released a statement asking European countries to "sort out their internal differences and abandon their timid approach to the negotiations on TRIPS and public health."
TRIPS refers to WTO copyright regulations that developing countries say restrict their ability to deal with public health crises.
Here in Doha they are seeking an easing in the rules to allow them to override drug patents, held by big pharmaceutical companies, when they confront public health crises such as AIDS.
The United States and other Western countries are resisting any weakening in the regulations, fearing it would discourage companies from making expensive investments in research.
"The Americans take a very hard line on defending TRIPS and the developing countries have a strong desire to see a guarantee for public health built into TRIPS," which leaves the Europeans "somewhere in the middle," Twyford said.
Oxfam and other NGOs are counting on the European Union to "try and get an agreement that gives poorer countries affordable access to medicines," seeing the EU as a "swing player" on the TRIPS issue.
"The Europeans are divided among themselves and we're telling them to get their act together and throw their weight behind the developping countries," Twyford said.
Many European countries have expressed a willingness to back Option 1 in the draft text that would ensure TRIPS did not prevent countries from taking measures to protect public health.
"It will be a political success for this conference to make sure that countries who need medicines.... will get them," Spanish Minister of Economy Rodrigo de Rato told AFP, "and this should be done within the framework of the WTO."By: Agence:
