For immediate release:

Press Release from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

June 22, 2001

Contact: Ben Lilliston – 612-870-3416

Minneapolis – Citizen groups from around the world expressed their objections to the Bush Administration’s position in global trade agreements on patenting life forms. Over 50 groups from 13 countries signed the letter to the President and US Trade office.

The groups protested the US position on patenting of life forms, plant varieties and pharmaceuticals in the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement within the World Trade Organization, at the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) meeting, and in other international and bilateral negotiations.

"The patenting of genetic resources is eroding biodiversity and the rights of farmers to save seed and remain the self-reliant backbone of the economy," the letter charged. "Millions of people have already died because they lack access to affordable treatment for HIV, and people everywhere struggle to cope with the rising costs of medicine and the lack of generic alternatives."

The groups expressed support for a position taken by the African Group of countries in the WTO on the review of the TRIPS agreement, which would prohibit patents on all forms of life and recognize the Convention on Biological Diversity, where the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, the protection of rights and knowledge of indigenous and local communities, and the promotion of farmers rights are more fully taken into account.

The letter demanded that the US government take the following steps:

• complete transparency in the negotiation of all trade agreements;
• the adoption of the African Group’s position to prohibit patents on all life forms and recognition of the Convention on Biological Diversity;
• the cessation of pressures from the US government on other countries to adopt more stringent intellectual property laws;
• the option of excluding medicines from patenting on humanitarian or public-health grounds and for the treatment of poverty-related diseases in all intellectual property negotiations.

Next week, a number of protests are taking place around the world targeting patents, including the Beyond Biodevastation conference takes place in San Diego this weekend protesting the annual meeting of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Below is a copy of the letter:

"Our World is Not for Sale"

Citizen Groups and NGO Statement to the U.S. Government Regarding Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)

The undersigned citizen groups and non-governmental organizations would like to express our profound dismay to the United States for its position on the patenting of life forms, plant varieties and pharmaceuticals in the TRIPS agreement generally and article 27.3(b) in particular, at the FTAA, and in other international and bilateral negotiations. Farmers, local economies, consumers, the elderly and the infirm, and people from developing countries around the entire globe suffer greatly under patent regimes. The patenting of genetic resources is eroding biodiversity and the rights of farmers to save seed and remain the self-reliant backbone of the economy. Millions of people have already died because they lack access to affordable treatment for HIV, and people everywhere struggle to cope with the rising costs of medicine and the lack of generic alternatives.

The U.S. government has been unwilling to listen to the concerns of its own citizenry and the voice of the international community in this regard. The U.S. position on TRIPS has been negotiated in secrecy in collaboration with transnational corporations and wealthy business interests. Moreover, the U.S. has exerted illegitimate pressure on other countries of the region to adopt TRIPS compliant national legislation and stricter patent laws. The US has allowed a patent on Basmati rice and many other plants and

microorganisms from other countries with utter disregard for the traditional social or economic interests of the peoples of those countries.

We support the position taken by the African Group of countries in the World Trade Organization on the review of the TRIPS Agreement, which would prohibit patents on all forms of life and recognize the Convention on Biological Diversity, where the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, the protection of rights and knowledge of indigenous and local communities, and the promotion of farmers rights are more fully taken into account.

The TRIPS agreement also threatens public health in countries around the globe by giving patents on medicines for a minimum of 20 years, giving a monopoly to patent-holders during that time. This negatively impacts the developing world's ability, in particular, to produce and distribute affordable generic alternatives to branded drugs. We are appalled by the dispute settlement case lodged by the U.S government against Brazil in the WTO for doing so. People everywhere, in developing and developed countries, are outraged at these kinds of pressures imposed on empoverished countries to prevent them from using the flexibility of TRIPS to improve the access of ordinary people, particularly the poorest, to medicines.

Patents support the private monopolization of life and biological resources, and are causing serious adverse environmental and developmental effects, and are jeopardizing food sovereignty, security, safety and the

livelihoods of millions of farmers. Such patents have also received strong objections from the public on ethical, religious and moral grounds. We support the view that substances and processes that exist in nature are a discovery and not an invention and thus are not patentable. Moreover, we support the notion that the genetic pool is a common heritage of humanity as a whole and recognize the contribution of indigenous and farming communities to the improvement of our shared genepool.

We demand:

· complete transparency in the negotiation of all trade agreements;

· the adoption of the African Group's position to prohibit patents on all life forms and recognition of the Convention on Biological Diversity;

· the cessation of pressures from the U.S. government on other countries to adopt more stringent intellectual property laws;

· immediate withdrawal of the of the one remaining claim for a patent on Basmati rice at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office;

· the option of excluding medicines from patenting on humanitarian or public-health grounds and for the treatment of poverty-related diseases in all intellectual property negotiations; and

· the immediate dismissal of the complaint lodged by the U.S. government against Brazil.

Signatories:

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), Minneapolis, Minnesota

Coalition Against the RiceTec Patent, Austin, TX

Red de Ecologia Social (REDES), Montivideo, Uruguay

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ACT UP/East Bay, Oakland, California

Africa Action, Salih Booker, Executive Director, Washington, D.C.

Anarchist Action of Rochester, Rochester, New York

Beyond Biodevastation/Biojustice 2001 Coalition, San Diego, California

Bill Rose-Heim, Cameron, Missouri

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the Upper Midwest, Des Moines, Iowa

Council for Responsible Genetics, Cambridge, MA

Environmental Research Foundation, Annapolis, Maryland

Forest Guardians, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Franklin W. Neff, Retired from the University of Missouri, Lenexa, Kansas

Global Exchange, San Francisco, California

Ithaca-area Safe Food Campaign/Organic Consumers Association, Ithaca, New York

John Wickham, Environmental Consultant, Washington, DC

Jonothan L. Logan, PhD, Molecular biologist, New York, New York

Lester Boleyn, Clergy, Cumberland, Maryland

Lissa E. Harris, graduate student, Dept. of Natural Resources, Cornell University Ithaca, New York

Martin Heller, PhD, Center for Sustainable Systems, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Middle East Childrens' Alliance, Berkeley, California

Maudelle Shirek, Vice Mayor, City of Berkeley, California

National Catholic Rural Life Conference, Brother David Andrews, Robert Gronski, Ph.D. Des Moines, Iowa

National Lawyers Guild International Law Project on Human, Economic and Environmental Defense (HEED), Los Angeles, California

Organic Consumers Association, Little Marais, Minnesota

Pesticide Action Network North America, San Francisco, California

Pete La Follette, Green Party, Santa Barbara, California

Rochester Food Not Bombs, Rochester, New York

Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, Institute Justice Team, Des Plaines, Illinois

The Ruckus Society, Oakland, California

Southern Neighborhoods Network, Nashville, Tennessee

Bathurst Social Justice Group, Bathurst N.S.W.

J. Price, Health Promotion Officer, Sydney

Kirsten Blair and Mark Wakeham, Environment Centre of the Northern Territory, Darwin

Margaret McCue, networker, Urunga, N.S.W.

Brewster and Cathleen Kneen, The Ram's Horn, British Columbia

Susan Black and Jan Westlund, Manitoba Eco-Network, Canada

Neil Bergman, Area Minister, Maritime Area of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Penny Swanson, Librarian, British Columbia

Yellowhead Ecological Association, Clearwater, British Columbia

Margarita Flórez, Ad Hoc Group on Biodiversity

Carlos Salgado and bBeatriz Torres, Ilsa

Catalina Toro and Pilar Valencia, Centro de Debate y Acción ambiental

Friends of the Earth, COECOCeiba

Silvia Rodriguez, Programa CAMBIOS-UNA, Heredia

OGM dangers, Herve Le Meur, President, Paris

Solagral, Paris and Montpellier

Grupo de Tecnología Alternativa S.C.

Dale Hinkley, New Zealand, Research Consultant

GE Free NZ in Food and Environment (R.A.G.E) Inc., Nelson

Nelson GE Awareness Group, Nelson

Pacific Institute of Resource Management, Wellington

Zelka Vallings, Chairwoman, GE Free Northland, Northland

Prof. J.A.Ekpere, University of Ibadan, Ibadan

Andrew Taynton, Safe Food Coalition

Biodynamic Agricultural Association, Gloucestershire

Centre for Social Markets, India and the United Kingdom

The Genetics Forum, London

GM Free Dacorum

Andrew Mushita, Director, Community Technology Development Trust