MEDDS Act

Summary

Medicines to Eliminate Diseases in Developing States Act or MEDDS Act - Requires the Secretary of the Treasury, the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to encourage developing countries and pharmaceutical companies to make medicines for HIV/AIDS and other diseases available without charge or at affordable prices in developing countries. Prohibits agencies from obligating or expending Federal funds to seek the revocation or revision of any intellectual property or competition law or policy of a developing country that regulates medicines for HIV/AIDS and other diseases, if the law or policy promotes access to such medicines for the population of the country. Prohibits the USTR from initiating a proceeding in the World Trade Organization (WTO) challenging any law or policy of a developing country that promotes such access. Requires the President to direct the U.S. respresentative to the WTO to urge the WTO to exempt developing countries from the application of any provision of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) or other trade agreements that would prohibit or restrict those countries from establishing law or policy promoting access to medicines for HIV/AIDS and other diseases for their populations, and to support full implementation of the Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health. Requires the USTR to oppose the inclusion in future trade agreements of any provision that would prohibit or otherwise restrict developing countries from establishing or implementing the laws or policies encouraged by this Act.

This text is taken from the official record. PoliticalRepo does not editorialize.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

3 official files

• Introduced in House (text)

  Introduced in House · EN · 12 June 2003

  ViewDownloadOpen at official source

• Introduced in House (PDF)

  Introduced in House · EN · 12 June 2003

  ViewDownloadOpen at official source

• Introduced in House

  summary · EN · 12 June 2003

  Open at official source

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.