Puangrat Asavapisit, director-general of the Intellectual Property Department, said after meeting yesterday with James Carouso, a senior economic officer at the US Embassy, that the US official nonetheless noted that the government had decided to suspend protection for the two drugs without informing the affected companies in advance.

Earlier, the Public Health Ministry said that it had issued compulsory licences for the production of two drugs, one for the treatment of HIV/Aids and the other a cardiovascular treatment, paving the way for immediate production and the import of lower-cost generic versions.

Public Health Minister Dr Mongkol na Songkhla announced that the medicines were Kaletra, an Aids drug produced by US-based Abbott Laboratories, and Plavix, the popular anti-clotting agent sold by France's Sanofi-Aventis and US-based Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Bangkok was concerned that the United States might link the decision with its annual revision of trade practices by its trading partners. The review directly affects US decisions about whether to impose trade sanctions.

Carouso also asked Puangrat about the progress the Kingdom was making on the suppression of intellectual property violations and the passage of a new copyright law.

Puangrat said she had told him that the new copyright law was pending consideration by the Council of State. She expects the law to sail through the National Legislative Assembly in July. She added that a draft patent act and a draft trademark act were both awaiting Cabinet consideration.

She told reporters that the US official was collecting information until Monday to submit to the US Trade Representative. The office of the USTR produces an annual report on all its trading partners on April 30.

Thailand is on the US trade watch-list due to copyright violations. If the level of violations becomes more severe, the US might move the Kingdom up from watch-list status to a level subject to trade retaliation.