Plum (Pharma ) jobs for US trade deal advisers

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/26/1090693902122.html?oneclick=true

 

Plum jobs for US trade deal advisers

By John Garnaut and Marian Wilkinson

July 27, 2004

 

Two senior United States trade negotiators who sealed

the trade deal with Australia have accepted plum jobs

representing US medical and drug companies.

 

Ralph Ives was promoted in April to assistant US trade

representative for pharmaceutical policy after leading

the trade negotiations with Australia.

 

Next month he becomes vice-president for global

strategy at AdvaMed, an industry group that says its

members produce half of the world's medical technology

products.

 

Claude Burcky, who was Mr Ives's head negotiator for

intellectual property trade issues, is now director of

global government affairs at the pharmaceutical

company Abbott Laboratories.

 

Mr Ives and Mr Burcky took their jobs after

negotiating the trade deal. Neither returned calls

from the Herald.

 

The trade deal has been praised in the US for

strengthening the intellectual property rights of

pharmaceutical companies, who say it will set a

precedent for trade agreements throughout the world.

The deal has been criticised in Australia and the US

for the same reasons.

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The Federal Government is adamant chapters of the

agreement dealing with intellectual property and the

Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme will not lead to higher

medical costs for Australians. But the appointments of

Mr Ives and Mr Burcky after negotiating the deal has

raised question marks on both sides of the Pacific.

 

" This may help explain why the Australian trade

agreement is designed to undercut access to affordable

medicines for Americans and Australians alike, " said

Sherrod Brown, a Ohio congressman who has been

prominent in a push to reduce the high cost of health

care in the US.

 

Peter Cook, the Labor senator who is chairing a

parliamentary committee examining the deal, said he

was troubled about the impact the agreement might have

on health costs.

 

" The ink isn't yet dry and these people have

transferred to special interest groups that stand to

benefit from the intellectual property rights they

have negotiated, " he said.

 

A small, influential and growing group of Labor MPs

has argued that the agreement may not be in

Australia's economic interest but must nevertheless be

supported to avoid Labor being accused of being

anti-American.

 

The Labor leader, Mark Latham, has said his party will

decide whether to support or scupper the agreement

after Senator Cook's report is tabled. The committee

hopes to complete the report next week.

 

The president of the Business Council of Australia,

Hugh Morgan, said yesterday that efforts by unions and

the Greens to pressure Labor into rejecting the deal

were short-sighted and reminiscent of efforts to prop

up protectionism in the 1980s and 1990s.

 

The Australian Medical Association said no final

verdict on the trade pact should be made until August

20, the deadline for public comment.