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U.S. accused of bullying over AIDS
By Robert Evans

GENEVA (Reuters) - International humanitarian organisation Oxfam has accused the United States of trying to bully poorer countries into
stopping production of drugs vital to fight AIDS and other epidemics in the developing world.

The accusation came in an Oxfam report issued as trade ministers from 25 countries meeting in Sydney said they had made progress
towards an accord aimed at getting anti-AIDS treatments to sufferers in the poorest countries.

"The U.S. government, at the behest of giant pharmaceutical companies, continues to bully developing countries to introduce unnecessarily
high standards of patent protection on medicines," Oxfam said on Friday.

The pressure, according to the report, was being exerted on countries like Brazil, India, Argentina, Thailand and Colombia which currently
produce so-called generics -- cheap copies of branded drugs against diseases such as AIDS and malaria.

Under an agreement at a World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministers' meeting in Qatar a year ago, rich countries which are home to big
pharmaceutical firms agreed that patent rules could be suspended to get drugs to poor countries in a crisis.

But since then the 145-member state WTO has struggled to meet an end-year deadline to conclude a deal on the details involving
adjustments to the TRIPS intellectual property pact.

While the talks have been under way, the Oxfam report said, the U.S. administration "continues to use bilateral and regional trade
agreements outside the WTO to pressure developing countries to implement TRIPS-plus standards."

However, comments from key ministers meeting in Sydney have indicated confidence that a further push was likely to bring an accord.

"You will see by December a breakthrough in this regard," India's commerce and industry minister Arun Shourie told reporters in Sydney
after the day-long conference.

But the Oxfam report warned that conditions for a final agreement sought by the United States -- as well as the European Union and
Switzerland -- would undermine its value. At the same time, Oxfam said, the United States was targeting developing nations in an effort to stop
production of generic drugs.

"This not only reduces poor people's access to medicines in these countries, but also chokes off the supply of cheap drugs to the vast
majority of other drug-importing poor countries, leaving them entirely dependent on expensive patented medicines," Oxfam said.

Oxfam's fellow campaigning body Medecins sans Frontieres on Friday accused Swiss drug-maker Roche Holding of breaking its promise
to cut the price of its AIDS drugs in poorer countries.

Reuters