GENEVA, Dec 16 (AFP) - The United States was still holding out on Monday at crunch WTO talks on the scope of diseases to be covered under a key WTO accord on ensuring poor countries access to life-saving cheap medicines, trade sources said.
At least 17 other World Trade Organisation members, including the European Union, told a nearly two-hour meeting here that although not completely acceptable, they could live with a newly tabled draft text, a source added.
"I can announce to you that the EU is ready to support this text," EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said in Brussels.
With a self-imposed deadline looming on Friday, the 144-nation WTO was presented with proposed fresh wording by the talks chairman, Eduardo Perez Motta, of Mexico, during the day in a bid to overcome deep divisions.
"Progress has been made," one Western diplomat said to waiting reporters, a comment echoed by a number of other delegates.
But US Ambassador Linnet Deily told the meeting at the WTO's Geneva headquarters that Washington still had difficulty with some of the proposed wording, a source said.
And Kenya, on behalf of the African group, said it also had some concerns about the text now on the table, and would need to await instructions from their capitals ahead of another meeting scheduled on Tuesday.
The problem centres around the WTO's accord on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), such as patents.
Ministers agreed at a conference in Qatar last year that WTO members had the right to override patents during a public health crisis, such as AIDS, and produce the drugs themselves.
But a problem remains.
Medicines produced under this system of "compulsory licensing" are supposed to be predominantly for domestic use and not for export.
Consequently, poor countries lacking a pharmaceutical industry would not benefit since they would neither be able to produce the drugs themselves nor import them.
The ministerial meeting in the Qatari capital in November 2001 gave trade delegates until the end of this year to find a solution.
But clear and deep divisions have been apparent among the WTO's membership in recent weeks, including on the scope of diseases that should fall under the new system.
Under the latest draft text, the agreement would cover "HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics", which is the same wording used by ministers in their Doha declaration.
But Washington has since repeatedly said it favoured more specific wording, referring to the three major diseases, as well as "other infectious epidemics of comparable gravity and scale".
The US ambassador told other delegates here Monday that the US did not believe illnesses such as asthma, obesity and tobacco-related diseases were part of the problem envisaged in Doha.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Deily said the US remained committed to the "spirit and intent" of Doha.
"We all need to focus on the specific mandate that ministers agreed to in Doha, helping poor countries fight these crippling epidemics and others that may occur in the future," she said.
"If we allow ourselves to be diverted from the original objectives, we risk failing to address effectively the public health crises that our ministers expect us to address," she added.
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