ASEAN to meet in Thailand to discuss Swine Flu

In order to take care of the Swine Flu threat, the Health Ministers of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries are scheduled to meet in Thailand on May 8. This was notified by the ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan through a press release issued by the ASEAN secretariat on Friday.

“Thailand will propose the idea of border and cross border surveillance, information exchange, stockpiles and production of vaccines,” the statement quoting Thai Public health Ministry said.

It was the Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen who proposed to hold this meeting after the swine flu had spread. In this meeting, the ASEAN public Health officials will discuss the swine flu issue with the Atlanta-based disease control centre.

It may be mentioned here that Southeast Asia was badly hit by earlier viral outbreaks of SARS in 2003 and the deadly human strain of bird flu in 2004.This meeting will show the unity of Asean in fighting this flu pandemic, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit said.

ASEAN includes Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, The Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar.

U.S places Thailand on Priority Watch List

The United States has maintained Thailand on its Priority Watch List following Thailand’s failure to make significant improvement on intellectual property rights and protection. This fact did not surprise Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva much as he already expected this. Thai News Agency had quoted that Abhisit and Washington has concern for Thailand’s intellectual property violation. U.S made the assessment over a relatively short period of time which opted to maintain Thailand’s trade status. This came after the U.S decision which kept Thailand on its special watch list of nations that fail to crack down on copyright and patent violations.

Abhisit promised that Thailand will ensure that intellectual property law is applied and that violations are prosecuted, denying the need to issue new laws as there are already several laws governing the issue.

The American trade office, the trading partners on the PWL, including Thailand, did not provide an adequate level of IPR protection or enforcement, or market access for those relying on intellectual property protection. So the countries will be the subject of “intense engagement” through bilateral discussions in the coming year.