"The First Case"of WTO Drug Reimbursement——"Turkey-Pharmaceutical Products Case"and Its Enlightenment to China
The Turkey-Pharmaceutical Products case,which promulgated the arbitral award on July 25,2022,is the first case making use of appeal arbitration under Article 25 of DSU and the first case concerning pharmaceutical reimbursement system.The Panel and the Arbitrators of this case both ruled that the reimbursement by the Turkish government for medicines sold in pharmacy did not constitute government procurement and that the localization measures was not conformity with the public health exception under Article 20(b)of GATT1994.The Arbitrators corrected a wrong legal interpretation developed by the Panel and substantially respected the fact finding of the Panel.There are still many legal interpretations and application issues that need to be clarified and improved.This case brings the following enlightenments to China:paying attention to the regulation and impact of WTO rules on the reform of medical system,the building up of supply chain resilience should be compatible with WTO rules,reasonably making use of government procurement derogation of WTO to ensure the security of domestic supply chain,and avoiding setting discriminatory additional conditions beyond the scope of the government procurement derogation of WTO.
WTOTurkey-Pharmaceutical Products casedrug reimbursementgovernment procurementlocalization of supply chain
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