Thai health advocates work to protect special provisions on medicines under E.U. free trade agreement

Thailand and the European Union (E.U.) are expected to begin talks on a free trade agreement early this year, and Thai public health advocates have sent a letter to Joao Aguiar Machado, deputy director general for trade at the European Commission, "call[ing] for the bloc to respect global trade rules' special provisions for developing countries," Inter Press Service reports. "'We are worried that the E.U. negotiators will force Thailand to accept new conditions on patents that would make access to new generic drugs more difficult,' says Chalermsak Kittitrakul, campaign officer at the AIDS Access Foundation," the news service writes, adding, "Thai health activists are hoping that their record of mounting successful campaigns against pharmaceutical giants -- even from the United States -- to ensure a thriving generic drugs market for patients in the country and across the region remains intact" (Macan-Markar, 12/29).