Abstract

Bush's AIDS Test

The author claims the Bush administration is likely to invoke the NAFTA agreement in an attempt to block a Canadian plan to produce inexpensive AIDS medications for poor countries. Fighting AIDS was supposed to show George W. Bush's softer side. "Seldom has history offered a greater opportunity to do so much for so many" he said in his State of the Union address this past January. He has since reconsidered, deciding instead to offer a few more opportunities to the few. First he handed the top job of his Global AIDS Initiative to a Big Pharma boss, then he broke his $3 billion promise of AIDS relief and now there are concerns that he may sabotage a plan to send cheap drugs to countries ravaged by AIDS. Countries wanting to import cheap genetics must jump through multiple hoops to prove they are truly in need, unable to afford patented drugs and incapable of producing the medicines domestically. But now something unexpected is happening. The Canadian government, under intense pressure from AIDS activists and the United Nations, is trying to put the WTO agreement into practice. In September, the government announced plans to amend its patent law to allow the manufacture of genetic versions of patented drugs exclusively for export to poor countries. Will the United States try to block the Canadian initiative or water it down--and if so, how? Canadian officials say they fear that the Bush Administration's weapon will be the North American Free Trade Agreement.