The United States and the World Trade Organization are seeking to reach agreement by year's end on how to provide poor countries greater access to drugs to fight AIDS and other diseases, according to trade officials. An agreement among WTO members last year acknowledged that many nations are in desperate need of such medicines but lack the means to manufacture them. Robert Zoellick, the US trade representative, met with WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand to begin the talks. The existing agreement on intellectual property, called TRIPS, grants the poorest nations the right to produce low-cost generic versions of patented medicine, while barring them from importing drugs from countries producing cheaper drugs like Brazil, South Africa and India.

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