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07/13/2004:

"France Accuses US of AIDS Blackmail"

by Sarah Boseley The Guardian UK
America was yesterday accused by France of blackmailing developing countries into giving up their right to produce cheap drugs for Aids victims.

In a move that may strain already tense relations between the two countries, the French president, Jacques Chirac, said there existed a real problem of favourable trade deals being dangled before poor nations in return for those countries halting production of life-saving generic drugs.

These cheap drugs compete with identical but more expensive patented varieties made by the world's largest pharmaceutical companies.

"Making certain countries drop these measures in the framework of bilateral trade negotiations would be tantamount to blackmail, since what is the point of starting treatment without any guarantee of having quality and affordable drugs in the long term?" Mr Chirac wrote in a statement that was read to the International Aids conference in Bangkok yesterday.

Although the president did not name the Bush administration in his attack, French officials later explicitly named the US as being at the heart of the problem.

Mireille Guigaz, France's global ambassador on Aids, said: "It is a question between the United States and developing countries, and the way the US wants to put pressure on developing countries who try to stand up for their own industries. We do not wish countries' hands [to be] tied by bilateral agreements." full article