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JULY 22, 1999, THURSDAY

SECTION: IN THE NEWS

LENGTH: 1319 words

HEADLINE: PREPARED STATEMENT BY
CONGRESSMAN JESSE L. JACKSON, JR.
BEFORE THE HOUSE GOVERNMENT REFORM COMMITTEE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE,
DRUG POLICY AND HUMAN RESOURCES
SUBJECT - THE U.S. ROLE IN COMBATING
THE GLOBAL HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC

BODY:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to address the Subcommittee during today's hearing on the United States role in combating the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, and policies and programs that are being pursued internationally.
As you are surely aware, HIV and AIDS are rampaging throughout sub- Saharan Africa. While sub-Saharan nations comprise only 10% of the world's population, they are bearing the tragic burden of 70% of the world's new AIDS cases. The World Health Organization reports that of the 14 million people who have died of .AIDS to date, 12 million have come from this region. In the hardest-hit countries -- Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland -- infection rates in the 15-49 age group are an astonishing 25 %. In tourist areas such as Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, the rates are even higher -40%. Please allow me to share additional key findings from the Report on the Presidential Mission on Children Orphaned by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, released by the White House on Monday:
* Deaths resulting from AIDS in sub- Saharan Africa will soon surpass the 20 million people in Europe who died in the plague of 1347.
* Over the next decade, AIDS will kill more people in sub-Saharan Africa than the total number of casualties in all wars of the 20th century.
* Each day, 5,500 in the region die of AIDS-related causes. By 2005, the daily death toll will reach 13,000.
* There are nearly 600,000 new infections each year among African babies. Nine of every 10 infants infected with HIV at birth or through breast feeding live in sub- Saharan Africa.
* In nine sub-Saharan countries, from one-fifth to one-third of children will lose one or both parents to AIDS this year.
* In Lusaka, Zambia, 100,000 children are estimated to be living on the streets, most of them orphaned by AIDS. By next year, 1 million children in Zambia, or one out of three, will have lost one or both parents.
* In large part as a result of AIDS, infant mortality will double and child mortality will triple over the next decade in many areas of sub-Saharan Africa.
* AIDS has reduced life expectancy in Zambia to 37 years from 56. In the next few years, AIDS will reduce life expectancy in South Africa by one-third, to 40 years from 60.
* Over the next 20 years, AIDS is estimated to reduce by one-fourth the economies of sub-Saharan Africa.
* In Malawi and Zambia, 30 % of teachers are HIV positive. In Zambia, 1,500 teachers died of AIDS- related causes in 1998.
* By 2005, AIDS deaths in Asia will mirror those in Africa. Asia will account for one out of every four infections worldwide by the end of the year. In India, rates of infection are expected to double every 14 months.
Finally, one in seven South Africans has HIV/AIDS, one in seven Kenyans, and one in four people in Zimbabwe. U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher has likened the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa to the plague which decimated Europe in the 14th century. Existing treatments which enable many people with HIV/AIDS in the United States and elsewhere to survive are unavailable to all but a few people in Africa. Life-saving HIV/AIDS drug cocktails cost about $12,000 a year in many African countries -- far out the reach of all but a small handful of the growing African population of people with HIV/AIDS.There is a crying need to make life-saving drugs more affordable and available, and quickly. South Africa is seeking to lower prices through use of compulsory licensing and parallel imports policies. Both of these measures are consistent with South Africa's obligations under the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade- Related Intellectual Property (TRIPS).
Compulsory licensing would permit generic production of on-patent drugs, with reasonable royalties paid to the patent owner. Market competition as a result of compulsory licensing would likely lower pharmaceutical prices by 75 percent or more. Parallel imports would enable the government to shop on the world market for low-priced pharmaceuticals.
Other countries are watching South Africa. And if the South African policies result in lower drug prices and help alleviate the AIDS epidemic, other African countries are likely to follow with similar life-saying measures.
Unfortunately, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representatives, and the U.S. government, have pressured the South Africans to abandon its legal attempts to employ compulsory licensing and parallel imports. They have been more responsive to the narrow commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry than to the public health and humanitarian interest in treating people with HIV/AIDS in Africa.
A State Department report explains how "U.S. Government agencies have been engaged in a full court press with South African officials from the Departments of Trade and Industry, Foreign Affairs, and Health," to pressure South Africa to change the provisions of its Medicines Act that give the government the authority to pursue compulsory licensing and parallel import policies.
The United States has withheld certain trade benefits (under the GSP program) from South Africa, and threatened trade sanctions (by putting South Africa on the Special 301 Watch List) as punishment for South Africa refusing to repeal the provisions of its Medicines Act that offend the multinational drug companies.
Section 4(a)(3) of the African Growth and Opportunity Act would make the problem worse. It would condition the modest benefitsoffered by the Act on several criteria, including whether a country is enforcing "appropriate policies relating to protection of intellectual property rights." This will give the USTR and other agencies additional leverage to use against South African and other African policies designed to make HIV/AIDS and other essential medicines more accessible -- even if these measures are TRIPS-legal. The Congress continues to send mixed messages regarding the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. Last week Congress passed by voice vote an amendment which expresses the "Sense of Congress" that "addressing the HIV/AIDS crisis should be a central component of America's foreign policy with respect to subSaharan Africa; expresses the sense of Congress that significant progress needs to be made in preventing and treating HIV/AIDS before we can expect to sustain a mutually beneficial trade relationship with sub-Saharan African countries." However, the Rules committee defeated a substantive-binding amendment I offered which would have resolved this problem and put an end to the misguided U.S. policy of bullying South Africa. It would prevent USTR or other agencies from interfering with African countries' efforts to make HIV/AIDS and other medicines affordable to the sick, so long as their intellectual property rules comply with the TRIPS.
Last week, with the AGOA amendment on HIV/AIDS, the House said its heart was in the right place on this issue. But just yesterday, Rep. Bernie Sanders offered an amendment to the State Department Authorization bill that would have put our heart and the policy in the same place -- but it was overwhelmingly defeated 307-117.
The Bible does not let us get away with mere good intentions. It requires good law, good policy and money for implementation. The Bible has a different and more objective standard. It says, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Matthew 6:21)
If Congress is serious about addressing these problems, we have the power to do so. We can either be politically correct, and side with the pharmaceutical companies or be morally correct and side with the millions of afflicted people in South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe and beyond in sub-Saharan Africa. The choice is ours.
Again, I thank you Mr. Chairman for this opportunity to address the Subcommittee and I look forward to working with the members of lifts Subcommittee on this critical issue.
END

LOAD-DATE: July 28, 1999

Document 9 of 17.


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