EU AGREES TIERED MEDICINE PRICING FOR POOR COUNTRIES
European governments on 26 May adopted a regulation that aims to facilitate the delivery of medicines to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis at strongly reduced (’tiered’) prices to developing countries. To this end, exporters are invited to put their products — both patented and generic — on a European Commission-run tiered price list. To be eligible, medicines have to be made available either with a price cut of 75 percent off the average price in OECD countries or at the cost of production plus 15 percent. The cheaper medicines will have to be labelled and re-importation is prohibited from the 76 eligible countries. If successful, the Commission plans to extend the system to other medicines and countries. While noting that the tiered pricing system was not directly related to the ongoing discussions on access to medicines in the WTO (see BRIDGES Weekly, 19 February 2003), the Commission argued that if countries could obtain medicines through the tiered pricing system, they would not need to invoke compulsory licenses. The charity Oxfam, however, expressed doubt that the new system would actually increase the affordability of drugs since even under the new rules, the (discounted) prices would still be too high to be affordable in most poor countries.
"EU acts to speed up flow of cheap Aids drugs," FINANCIAL TIMES, 26 May 2003; EU clears plan to ensure delivery of cheap medicines to developing countries," DG TRADE, 26 May 2003.
EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE FAVOURS TIGHTER GMO RULES
The European Parliament’s Environment Committee on 22 May voted to further tighten the labelling and traceability legislation for genetically modified food and feed. The Committee agreed to lower the minimum threshold below which GMOs would be exempted from labelling requirements form 0.9 to 0.5 percent. The Committee also voted in favour of legally binding rules to regulate the co-existence of genetically modified, conventional and organic crops. European industry groups expressed concerns that these amendments, if accepted by the European Parliament in the second reading of the legislation in July, could hold up its adoption and further delay the lifting of the de facto moratorium on approvals. Criticism of the decision was also heard from the European Commission. "The Parliament has snubbed the US," said Commission spokeswoman Beate Gminder, referring to the recent US request for WTO consultations on the moratorium (see BRIDGES Weekly, 13 May 2003). The Commission noted that co-existence was already being addressed as a separate issue and should not be added to the labelling bill (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 10 March 2003). The environmental group Friends of the Earth welcomed the Committee’s decision, which they said "paves the way for better consumer choice and action to protect non-GMO and organic farmers from genetic contamination".
"EU lawmakers move to toughen GMO rules," REUTERS, 24 May 2003; "European Environment Committee votes for stronger GMO laws," FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, 22 May 2003.
TROPICAL TIMBER COUNCIL MAKES PROGRESS ON FOREST CERTIFICATION
Delegates at the 34th Council of the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) met from 12-17 May in Panama City, Panama. Based on a report prepared by the ITTO Secretariat on issues affecting market access for tropical timber, delegates discussed, inter alia, impacts of trade on sustainable forest management and the development of phased certification schemes. Among the most significant achievements of the meeting was the adoption of a decision on phased approaches to forest certification (PA), which authorises the ITTO Executive Director to engage consultants from both producer and consumer countries to examine the costs and benefits of PAs in certain member countries, and to develop procedures to implement PAs. In addition, an international workshop will be convened on this issue. The decision marked an important step forward in the certification debate that has long divided producer and consumer countries in the ITTO (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 21 November 2002). The phased approach would involve a series of interim targets or milestones, allowing limited resources to be focused on one or two tasks at a time. The system would allow producer countries that have no certification schemes in place yet to attain certification more easily and thus improve market accessibility for their tropical timber products. Consumer countries have signalled their willingness to discuss PAs as one among several possibilities to ensure sustainable forest management, but would prefer to assess the actual costs and benefits before giving their final approval.Regarding the relationship between the ITTO and the WTO, delegates adopted a decision mandating the Executive Director of the ITTO to report on the development of negotiations at the WTO on tariffs on tropical timber products.
Documents from ITTC-34 are available at: http://www.itto.or.jp/ittcdd_ses/thirty_fourth_sessions.html
For daily briefings of both meetings see: http://www.iisd.ca/linkages
ICTSD Reporting; ENB Vol. 24 No. 21, 19 May 2003; Vol. 13 No. 100, 2 June 2003.