§ Norman LambTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress she and her fellow WTO246W Ministers have made towards lifting the restrictions within the TRIPS agreement on poorer countries' access to affordable medicines. [43532]
§ Ms HewittThe Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, adopted at the WTO Ministerial in Doha in November last year, agreed that the TRIPS Agreement does not and should not prevent WTO Members from taking measures to protect public health.
However, the Declaration recognised 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 and instructed the TRIPS Council to find an expeditious solution to this problem before the end of 2002.
The Government are keen to see a solution to this issue. Discussions in the TRIPS Council are ongoing.