GENEVA, Aug 29: Weary trade negotiators made a new bid on Friday to overcome last-minute objections that held up a pact intended to make it easier for poor nations to import life-saving medicines to fight AIDS and other diseases.
A deal had appeared within their grasp until unexpected differences emerged on its interpretation, forcing the WTO to suspend a session of its executive General Council in the early hours of Friday.
The executive, which must approve any accord, started talking again on Friday afternoon for what could be a final push for a pact before a ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, starting September 10.
Allowing poorer states unable to manufacture medicines domestically to override international patents and import cheap generic drugs when they need to is seen as vital to beating major killer diseases such as AIDS and malaria.
Failure to strike a deal would add to the problems of ministers as they seek to inject new momentum into the WTO’s struggling Doha Round of free trade talks.
“This has humanitarian importance and we want to have a deal before Cancun,” the Council’s president, Uruguayan ambassador Carlos Perez del Castillo, told journalists.
Envoys fear that if left until Cancun, drugs could get lost in a raft of other issues, but they say time is short as they must disperse shortly to return to their capitals to brief ministers ahead of the five-day trade summit.—Reuters
