China notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Wednesday that it had ratified the Protocol Amending the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Chinese Ambassador Sun Zhenyu sent a notification letter to WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy together with the instrument of ratification signed by President Hu Jintao and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, said the Chinese mission to the WTO.

The Protocol Amending the TRIPS Agreement, done at Geneva on December 6 2005, means to allows WTO members to export patented medicines to third countries with no manufacturing capacity in the pharmaceutical sector, by making use of compulsory licenses.

"China believes that this amendment of the TRIPS Agreement is part of the wider national and international actions to address the public health problems afflicting many developing countries, particularly the least-developed countries," the Chinese mission said in a statement.

"In ratifying the protocol, China has showed its consistent commitment to the WTO's development objective and its support for developing members' legitimate right to protect public health and gain improved access to medicines," the statement said.

The protocol will only enter into force once two thirds of the WTO's 151 members have accepted it. China is the 13th WTO member to have accepted it.