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Senai W. Andemariam, The status of WTO non-members: A review in light of the 6 December 2005 proposed amendment to the TRIPs Agreement, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, Volume 2, Issue 3, MARCH 2007, Pages 153–159, https://doi.org/10.1093/jiplp/jpl238
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Abstract
After almost four years of debate, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has finally proposed to amend Article 31 of the TRIPs Agreement as part of the international endeavour to tackle the conflict between drug patent rights and the right of victims of public health crises to have access to affordable drugs. The proposed amendment, Article 31 bis introduces a special compulsory licence regime for the purpose of manufacture and export of cheaper pharmaceutical products from some Members of the WTO to those which have no or insufficient capacity to manufacture these products.
This article discusses the status, in light of the proposed amendment, of non-members of the WTO that are otherwise members of other health-related international organizations (like the World Health Organization), which have been striving to find a solution to this conflict alongside the WTO. The article provides background information on the drug patent-public health debate, and discussion of Article 31 bis and compulsory licensing.
The discussion on the status of non-members of the WTO in light of the proposed system will help the reader to understand that limiting the benefits of the system to Members of the WTO might, contrary to the spirit and the history of the proposal, leave non-members behind in the global fight against public health crises. The article will show that without directly violating the TRIPs Agreement and the proposed amendment, non-members can also participate in the global fight against public health crises and thus benefit as many victims of these crises as possible.
