It didn’t take long for the government’s FTA chicken’s to come home to roost. Not surprisingly, the US government repeated its earlier statementthat it had serious problems with the amendments introduced by Labor to stop ‘evergreening’ of pharmaceuticals (a device to extend effect patent life using trivial variations on existing patents)[1].
More interesting is that Big Pharma is already acting as if the agreement is set in concrete, heavying the Howard government over its own election promises. All of this is as I predicted, using the arguments of Christopher Pearson. Following Pearson’s summary of the arguments Big Pharma could use against the Labor amendments, I observed
What’s critical to note here is that these points have nothing to do with the specific content of Labor’s amendments. They apply to any legislation concerning the PBS that an Australian government might seek to introduce in the future and, arguably, to any administrative decisions made by Ministers. If Pearson is correct1, the FTA gives the Americans an effective veto power over anything we might attempt to do to improve the functioning of the PBS. It’s notable that Pearson’s points are almost identical to those that have previously been made by critics of the deal, and pooh-poohed by the government.
If there was ever a time for Howard to earn the “Man of Steel” moniker hung on him by George Bush. He should demand an exchange of letters from the US side making it clear that we can take whatever action we deem necessary to protect the PBS. If this isn’t forthcoming, he should walk away from the deal and see what he can get out of the next US Administration, or the one after that if necessary.
fn1. After some hamfisted interventions on other issues, the US did the right thing in waiting until after the election to raise these concerns.
John Quiggin 
Another disappointment!
First we find that costello is playing down the dream economy already and now big pharma and their US government mates want to beat up on us over the PBS.
my mate,gus,in auckland got it right-“you turkeys have voted for an early christmas”!
Now we will see whether the ALP has the backbone to refuse to be intimidated by false “mandate” claims about the FTA. As has been pointed out over the last few days, the FTA was one of the “forgotten issues” in the election, so no mandate exists. There is absolutely nothing to stop the ALP raising hell about this issue.
Well there is one thing to stop the ALP protecting the PBS from the depradations of the US drug companies. The lack of seats in the houses of parliament. I am surprised that John Quiggin thinks it worthy that the USA held off bringing up these concerns during the election. Surely it was much smarter for the USA to avoid any PBS type discussion which would have helped the ALP. The Liberal party is philosophically opposed to the PBS. They will not stand up to the the USA. They will welcome the chance to reverse the amendments on July 2. The PBS, like so much else, is soon to be history.