Posted At Seven
BY : Sven Gustafason
The United States can no longer craft trade deals making it harder to import US-made pharmaceuticals from other nations under a measure approved this week.
The compromise legislation is aimed at keeping the rancorous issue of drug reimportation out of trade pacts the United States reaches with other countries.
The Bush administration, which opposes the measure, said it would "substantially weaken US efforts to protect intellectual property through US trade agreements".
The administration also said it would infringe on the president's authority to negotiate trade deals.
The bill must be passed by the House and Senate before being sent to President George W Bush for his signature.
The issue surfaced in the free trade agreement with Australia.
The pact was approved overwhelmingly, despite the objection by many politicians to a provision that prevented the importation of drugs from Australia on which US drug companies held patents.
The US pharmaceutical industry opposes legislation allowing American consumers to buy prescription drugs from Canada and other countries.
Often, those drugs are much less expensive than identical ones bought domestically.
The industry says imported drugs raise safety concerns because of the possibility they could be adulterated, contaminated or counterfeit.
They also complain government policies in many other countries keep down the price of drugs, forcing them to charge higher prices in the United States.
