The FINANCIAL — Seychelles has become the latest country to accept the 2005 protocol amending the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
Seychelles’ Finance Minister, Ms Cillia Mangroo, presented the instrument of acceptance to WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo on 8 June 2016.
The protocol will enter into force once two-thirds of the WTO membership has formally accepted it. Close to 63 per cent of the WTO’s 162 members have submitted their instruments of acceptance for the protocol, according to WTO.
The protocol amending the TRIPS Agreement, which was agreed in 2005, is intended to formalize a decision to ease poorer WTO members’ access to affordable medicines. The protocol allows exporting countries to grant compulsory licences (one that is granted without the patent holder’s consent) to their generic suppliers to manufacture and export medicines to countries that cannot manufacture the needed medicines themselves. These licences were originally limited to predominantly supplying the domestic market.
Seychelles became the 161st WTO member in April 2015.
Discussion about this post