JESSE L. JACKSON, JR. COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Congress of the United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20313-1302 SUBCCLIMEES LABCH HEALTH AND HUMAN SECES-EDUCATION FOREIGN OPERATIONS. EXPORT FINANCING STATEMENT BY CONGRESSMAN JESSE L. JACKSON, JR. SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE, DRUG POLICY AND THE U.S. ROLE IN COMBATING THE GLOBAL HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC 11:30 A.M. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to address the Subcommittee As you are surely aware, HIV and AIDS are rampaging throughout sub-Saharan Please allow me to share additional key findings from the Report on the * * Deaths resulting from AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa will soon surpass the Over the next decade, AIDS will kill more people in sub-Saharan Africa Each day, 5,500 in the region die of AIDS-related causes. By 2005, the 313 CANNON BUILDING WASHINGTON, DC 20515-1302 (202) 225-0773 10331 SOUTH HALSTED This mailing was prepared, published, and mailed at taxpayer expense. 17926 SOUTH HALSTED HOMEWOOD, IL 60430 (708) 798-6000 * * 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 onethird, 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-saving 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 benefits offered 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 would have resolved this problem and put an end to the misguided U.S. policy 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 this Subcommittee on this critical issue. 65-308 D-00--2 Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, 83% of AIDS deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa There are approximately 750 million people in sub-Saharan Africa -- almost 500 million more people than live in the United States. The African Growth and Opportunity Act (H.R. 434AGOA) is too narrow in its scope to effectively address the size of Africa's problems and the needs of the continent. HIV and AIDS are rampant throughout sub-Saharan Africa. While subSaharan African nations comprise only 10% of the world's population, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that in 1998, they accounted for 70% of the world's new AIDS cases. In the hardest hit countries -- Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe - approximately 1/4 of the population aged 15-49 is currently living with HIV or AIDS. Any legislation aimed at improving well-being and opportunity in sub-Saharan Africa must address the dire need to contain the AIDS epidemic. AGOA completely ignores the AIDS crisis. The HOPE for Africa Act, on the other hand, takes serious aim at ameliorating the AIDS epidemic through a combination of aid, debt relief and policies specifically designed to increase the availability of pharmaceuticals to HIV positive individuals and AIDS patients in sub-Saharan Africa. The repercussions of the AIDS crisis have been felt in all corners of African society. 95% of the world's children whose parents or primary care-givers have died of AIDS live in Africa, where social safety nets are under-developed or often non-existent. Women have been afflicted disproportionately largely due to gender-based impediments, including seeking and receiving treatment. The crisis has imposed painful costs on the fledgling African business sector as well. UNAIDS reports that in Botswana, companies estimate that AIDS-related expenses will soar from under one percent of compensation costs now to five percent in six years' time. -OVER |