O Acordo TRIPS e o acesso a medicamentos: o caso do litígio Brasil versus EUA na OMC como um norte para cooperação

Abstract

The World Trade Organization (WTO), created during the Uruguay Round in 1986, replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) of 1947. Active since 1995, it aims to inspect and liberalize world trade. The Dispute Settlement Body makes up the WTO and emphasizes itself as the central topic of this work. With great relevance in world development, the WTO acts as a body for negotiation and trade pacification based on the three basic principles of the GATT of (i) non-discrimination, (ii) most-favored nation and (iii) national treatment; thus, the Dispute Settlement Body has become the main instrument to prevent disagreements arising from noncompliance with clauses of international agreements. Our objective is to investigate the agency's performance with regard to the impasse of the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs Agreement) and the constant effort to balance the level of protection sought by the Agreement and the needs to facilitate access by medicines in underdeveloped countries. The case addressed is the controversy that occurred between the United States and Brazil in 2000, in which the North American pharmaceutical industries declared exclusivity in the production and commercialization of the drugs used in the treatment of AIDS, generating dissatisfaction in the Brazilian government. In order to achieve this goal, we seek support in books, articles and documents that address these topics so that, based on the investigation of all variables, compile results and formulate a conclusion on the topic. This method of describing and analyzing a situation that occurred fits in as a case study.