Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - November 15, 2002
Shapi Shacinda

"We have applied for licensing from the WTO to allow us to manufacture AIDS drugs, and we would like to see this happening by December," Erastus Mwencha, secretary general of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), told Reuters in an interview.

"We want the WTO to treat Comesa as one region so that drugs manufactured in one country can be sold in all member states without problems," Mwencha said.

Comesa's request came as two dozen world trade ministers, meeting in Sydney, discussed putting a broad plan before the WTO that would allow poor countries to manufacture generic copies of drugs that are protected by intellectual property rights in developed countries.

Mwencha said Comesa, made up of 20 countries from Egypt to Madagascar, had determined that AIDS was strangling trade and development across Africa because it was killing the continent's most qualified and economically active people. He said Comesa had applied for a domestic manufacturing licensing system that would allow one country making AIDS drugs to export to other Comesa members--avoiding what he described as overpriced licensing deals demanded by current AIDS drug manufacturers.

"The West argue that they must make profits, but our argument is that drugs must be cheaper as we cannot continue to see people dying for the sake of profits," Mwencha said.

A PANDEMIC AFRICA CANNOT AFFORD

Comesa countries are spending a lot of money to import antiretroviral drugs, and regional trade will suffer if the spread of the disease was not brought under control, he said.

The Comesa bloc has a gross domestic product of $170 billion and a population of 380 million people.

Analysts and AIDS activists have charged the United States and the international pharmaceutical industry with using the WTO agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to attack developing countries trying to develop their own AIDS drugs.

Analysts say TRIPS has worsened health problems for most developing countries by raising drug prices and reducing access for poor people.

Most Comesa members are in sub-Saharan Africa where more than 20 million people are infected with HIV and AIDS.

The region also has high poverty levels, and in some countries most people live below the World Bank poverty threshold of $1 per day.

Comesa members are Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Seychelles, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Mauritius, Angola, Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan, Rwanda, Swaziland, Burundi, Eritrea, Djibouti, Comoros and Madagascar.

Mwencha said AIDS was threatening agricultural production as farm workers fall ill, while the region's informal trade sector, which comprises the hawkers, vendors and small businesses that supply much of the region's economic vitality, was also being severely impacted.

"AIDS is stretching resources for development and the situation is so bad that some countries may experience negative (economic) growth," Mwencha said.

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