The Cabinet yesterday approved the WTO's Protocol Amending the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which allows WTO members to export patented medicines to third world countries with no pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity.
Outgoing Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
"[Taiwan] is able to assist other WHO countries and is willing to fulfill its obligations as expected by the international community. Agreeing to the protocol would also help increase Taiwan's visibility," Chang said at the Cabinet's weekly meeting.
The proposed amendment concerns Article 31 of the TRIPS agreement, which allows countries that do not have the capacity to manufacture generic drugs to import them under a compulsory license.
The Article permits signatories to issue such licenses and sets out the conditions under which they can be granted.
But restrictions on exports in Article 31 have been criticized as an insurmountable obstacle for many poor countries in desperate need of affordable medicines to combat epidemics such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
The article only allows a country to issue a compulsory license for a drug manufactured and predominantly used within its borders.
The protocol will only enter into force once two-thirds of the WTO's members, or 151 members, have approved it.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet yesterday approved an amendment to the Money Laundering Control Law (
Chang called on lawmakers to pass the amendment ahead of the 16th Plenary Meeting of the Egmont Group -- an international organization of financial intelligence units, of which Taiwan is a member -- later this month.
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