Ahead of the RCEP Ministerial Conference to be held in Myanmar on 27-28 August 2014, see letter from Medecins Sans Frontieres addressed to the Indian Minister of State for Commerce & Industry regarding the inclusion of intellectual property (IP) in the negotiations of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and its potential impact on access to affordable generic medicines from India.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the ten member states of the Association of South East Nations (ASEAN) and the six states with which ASEAN has existing FTAs – Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand. RCEP negotiations were formally launched in November 2012 at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia. Till now there have been five rounds of negotiations.
As negotiations on RCEP gain momentum in the coming year, we urge the Minister to monitor ‘very closely’ the RCEP negotiations on IP and to make sure the terms of any trade agreement reached ‘do not impede free trade in generic medicines’ that we and so many in the developing world rely upon.
Source: Médecins Sans Frontières