Letter to Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade re: Intellectual property issues in bilateral FTA negotiations

« As one of the civil society organizations that has been actively engaged over several years in policy discussions with the federal government regarding the issue of intellectual property law and access to affordable medicines in developing countries — and in particular the provisions of Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR) — we write to raise our concern at the recent announcement by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) that it is assessing ‘the extent of Canadian intellectual property interests’ in Peru, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, in the context of initiating trade agreement negotiations with these countries. »