Government Procurement Defence Under GATT 1994 Article III:8(a): A Critical Review of the Turkey-Pharmaceutical Products Dispute

Abstract

This article critically reviews the Turkey-Pharmaceutical Products Dispute, focusing on the question of whether Turkey’s drug insurance reimbursement scheme can be regarded as government procurement, which would allow Turkey’s drug production localization policy to be exempt from national treatment obligation. Both the panel (on the account that there was no ownership by the government) and the arbitrators (on the account that there was insufficient control of pharmaceutical products subject to the dispute), ruled against Turkey’s government procurement defence. In contrast, this article argues that given rising health costs and repeated global pandemics which compel governments to build up sufficient national production capability of health products to facilitate timely supply of medical products, it would be desirable to take a broad approach towards interpreting the scope of Article III:8(a) with respect to the pharmaceutical sector, granting greater policy space for member governments. pharmaceuticals, government procurement, national treatment, Article III:8(a) derogation, drug insurance reimbursement, domestic localization policy, health policy, Turkey