WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION, MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE, Fourth Session,Doha, 9 - 14 November 2001
DECLARATION ON THE TRIPS AGREEMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH
1. We recognize the gravity of the public health problems afflicting
many developing and least-developed countries, especially those resulting
from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics.
2. We stress the need for the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) to be part of the wider
national and international action to address these problems.
3. We recognize that intellectual property protection is important
for the development of new medicines. We also recognize the concerns
about its effects on prices.
4. We agree that the TRIPS Agreement does not and should not prevent
Members from taking measures to protect public health. Accordingly, while
reiterating our commitment to the TRIPS Agreement, we affirm that the
Agreement can and should be interpreted and implemented in a manner
supportive of WTO Members' right to protect public health and, in
particular, to promote access to medicines for all.
In this connection, we reaffirm the right of WTO Members to use,
to the full, the provisions in the TRIPS Agreement, which provide
flexibility for this purpose.
5. Accordingly and in the light of paragraph 4 above, while
maintaining our commitments in the TRIPS Agreement, we recognize that
these flexibilities include:
(a) In applying the customary rules of interpretation of public
international law, each provision of the TRIPS Agreement shall be read in
the light of the object and purpose of the Agreement as expressed, in
particular, in its objectives and principles.
(b) Each Member has the right to grant compulsory licences and the freedom
to determine the grounds upon which such licences are granted.
(c) Each Member has the right to determine what constitutes a national
emergency or other circumstances of extreme urgency, it being understood
that public health crises, including those relating to HIV/AIDS,
tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics, can represent a national
emergency or other circumstances of extreme urgency.
(d) The effect of the provisions in the TRIPS Agreement that are relevant
to the exhaustion of intellectual property rights is to leave each Member
free to establish its own regime for such exhaustion without challenge,
subject to the MFN and national treatment provisions of Articles 3 and 4.
6. We recognize that WTO Members with insufficient or no
manufacturing capacities in the pharmaceutical sector could face
difficulties in making effective use of compulsory licensing under the
TRIPS Agreement. We instruct the Council for TRIPS to find an expeditious
solution to this problem and to report to the General Council before the
end of 2002.
7. We reaffirm the commitment of developed-country Members to provide
incentives to their enterprises and institutions to promote and encourage
technology transfer to least-developed country Members pursuant to Article
66.2. We also agree that the least-developed country Members will not be
obliged, with respect to pharmaceutical products, to implement or apply
Sections 5 and 7 of Part II of the TRIPS Agreement or to enforce rights
provided for under these Sections until 1 January 2016, without prejudice
to the right of least-developed country Members to seek other extensions
of the transition periods as provided for in Article 66.1 of the TRIPS
Agreement. We instruct the Council for TRIPS to take the necessary action
to give effect to this pursuant to Article 66.1 of the TRIPS Agreement.
WT/MIN(01)/DEC/W/2, 14 November 2001, (01-5770)
Thanks to Zackie Achmat of Treatment Action Campaign, South Africa, for sourcing this text.