US embassy cable - 04ANKARA5695

UNCLAS ANKARA 005695 
 
SIPDIS 
 
USTR FOR LERRION/BPECK 
USEU FOR CHRIS WILSON 
USPTO FOR ELAINE WU 
USDOC FOR ITA/MAC/DDEFALCO 
DEPT FOR EB/TPP/MTA/IPC, EUR/ERA, EUR/SE 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD, KIPR, TU 
SUBJECT: Turkey: European Commission Pushing on Data 
Exclusivity 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY. 
 
1. (SBU) On September 29, Arslan Umut Ergezer, Economic 
and Trade Officer with the EC Representation in Turkey, 
discussed with Econoff the EC's newly-issued report on 
practices in the Turkish pharmaceuticals industry, 
particularly lack of data exclusivity protection.  The 
Trade Barrier Report unsurprisingly finds that Turkey 
has not complied with the customs union and TRIPS 
Agreement requirements to implement this protection by 
2000/2001.  The report urges Turkey, by the end of 
October 2004, to implement data exclusivity or to agree 
to abide by a decision by the European Court of Justice. 
If Turkey agrees to neither of these options, the EC 
will begin formal WTO consultations.  Ergezer also said 
that the report contemplates EU adoption of "trade 
defense measures" against Turkey, though he opined that 
trade sanctions are not likely to be imposed.  Ergezer 
did not provide us with a copy of the report. 
 
2. (SBU) Ergezer told us that EC officials had delivered 
the report to Turkey's Brussels delegation during the 
week of September 20, and that Trade Commissioner Lamy 
had pressed State Minister Tuzmen on data exclusivity 
several times, during the Euro-Med summit, as well as in 
a followup letter and telephone call. 
 
3. (U) Note:  Turkish officials contend that the TRIPS 
Agreement does not require data exclusivity protection, 
but have said that end-2007 is their target date for 
implementing protection for confidential test data.  End 
Note. 
 
4. (SBU) Comment:  While the EC report is welcome and 
complement's USG efforts to bring forward Turkish 
implementation of data exclusivity, the GOT may not be 
spurred to action by the prospect of dispute settlement 
proceedings, which could drag on until close to the GOT 
implementation target in 2007.  Given the enormous stake 
that Turkish generic manufacturers have in maintaining 
the status quo and their ability to successfully lobby 
the GOT, the GOT is not eager to address the issue. 
Edelman