Campaigning and advocacy

Oxfam campaigns globally for a change to the world trade rules on drug patents and intellectual property rights which undermine countries’ access to essential medicines and farmers’ means to make a living.

The Thai health care scheme and people living with HIV and AIDS rely on the manufacture of low-cost, generic drugs. The health care scheme will face threat should the proposed unfair Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the United States and Thailand be signed and implemented. The proposed trade deal demands a 25-year patent protection on new drugs resulting in an increase in prices of drugs and a market monopoly.

Oxfam International and partners launched a global campaign during the XV World AIDS Conference in Bangkok in 2004, revealing the negative impact of the US-Thailand FTA on health care in Thailand. The campaign was substantiated by a comprehensive research in 2006 on the impact of FTA on the access to medicine in Thailand.

“If the price of the ARV drugs increases, the national health care scheme will collapse. Hundreds of thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS who need these drugs to survive will be badly affected,” says Noi, a single mother living with HIV in Chiang Mai, Thailand, who receives ARV drugs under the government health scheme.

We support our partners to participate in policy development to ensure that the needs of small-scale farmers and fishers are heard and reflected in national policies. Together with partners and civil society groups, we monitor multilateral, regional, and bilateral trade negotiations on agriculture and campaign for fair trade rules. Over the past year, the campaign has scaled up to inform farmers, the public, and the Government on the impact of the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the United States and Thailand and its intellectual property rights on the lives of 30 million small-scale farmers.

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Last updated: January 07