Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 2 • Number 19 • 11th December 2002
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AMONG KEY ISSUES AS WTO DEADLINES LOOM
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AMONG KEY ISSUES AS WTO DEADLINES LOOM
WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi at the meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee on 4-6 December gave a "mixed" assessment of progress in the current round of negotiations, calling on governments to show "courage and leadership now" if the round is to be completed as scheduled on 1 January 2005. Supachai also warned Members against "overloading" the agenda of the next Ministerial meeting in Cancun (September 2003) if they failed to meet the interim deadlines. Among the key issues to be finalised by the end of the year are negotiations on paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on intellectual property and health, as well as on how to deal with outstanding "implementation" issues, including the extension of the higher level of protection for geographical indications (GIs) to products other than wines and spirits.
Negotiations continue on TRIPs and health
Following the suspension of the TRIPs Council on 27 November, informal negotiations continue on paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPs [Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights] Agreement and Public Health. Paragraph 6 instructs Members to find an expeditious solution (by the end of 2002) to the problems countries may face in making use of compulsory licensing (i.e. allowing the use of a patent without the consent of the patent-holder under certain conditions) if they have insufficient or no pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity. Divisions among Members persist, inter alia, over the diseases that should be covered by the solution, the extent to which countries are going to use the system, how to ensure that cheap drugs do not flow back into developed country markets, and the options for a permanent solution (see BRIDGES Weekly, 28 November 2002).
TRIPs Council Chair Ambassador Eduardo Peréz Motta (Mexico) aims to submit a document approved by the TRIPs Council to the General Council. The General Council is currently scheduled to meet on 10-13 December, but is likely to be reconvened next week, possibly on the 18 and 20 December. The TRIPs and health discussions, together with those on special and differential treatment, have been placed at the end of the General Council’s agenda. BRIDGES Weekly will report on the status of the TRIPs and health negotiations in the forthcoming issue.
TRIPs-related implementation issues
As mandated by the Doha Ministerial Declaration (para. 12), various WTO councils and committees reported to the TNC on outstanding "implementation" issues, i.e. developing countries’ problems in implementing the current WTO Agreements arising from the Uruguay round of trade negotiations. One of the most contentious among these issues deals with the question of whether to extend the higher level of protection for geographical indications (GIs) to products other than wines and spirits (see BRIDGES Weekly, 3 July 2002). The TRIPs Council, however, did not submit a report to the TNC due to the deep divisions among Members on whether to begin negotiations on GI extensions. The EU, Switzerland, Bulgaria, India and several other developing countries are among the strong advocates for negotiations, while others, including the US, Australia, Argentina, Canada, New Zealand and Uruguay, have repeatedly questioned the benefit of GI extensions.
Another implementation issue is the review of Article 27.3(b) (patentability of life forms). Members could not agree whether to include a proposal put forward by Brazil and others to amend the TRIPs Agreement to explicitly refer to prior informed consent and benefit-sharing related to genetic resources.
Geographical indications, as defined in the WTO TRIPs Agreement, are identifications of the country or region where the quality, reputation or other characteristic of a product is essentially attributable to the geographical region. Additional protection of GIs already exists for wines and spirits (e.g. Champagne, Bordeaux and Cognac), and some countries (mainly Asia, Europe and Africa) are calling for this protection to be extended to other products (e.g. Basmati rice, Darjeeling tea or Camembert cheese). Some believe that by giving value to localised natural products and associated know-how, GIs can provide an incentive to preserve native varieties, the environment in which the respective resources are grown, and the traditional knowledge associated with them. Others, however, are concerned that GIs will only bring new obligations for developing countries while the benefits will mainly go to developed countries that are better prepared at the national level to take advantage of GI extensions and that might use GIs as a trade barrier against developing countries’ exports.
Other matters discussed
The TNC received a number of other reports on progress in the various councils and committees. On agriculture, Stuart Harbinson, Permanent Representative of Hong Kong, noted some progress in specific areas, such as export credits, but also stressed that substantial differences remained. WTO Members are required to agree on negotiating modalities by end of March, a deadline which is looking increasingly difficult to meet, according to trade sources (see BRIDGES Weekly, 20 November 2002).
Regarding the trade and environment negotiations mandated by para. 31 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration, Ambassador Yolande Bike of Gabon pointed out that discussions on the relationship between multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and WTO rules continued to be hindered by the pending question of observership for MEA secretariats in the negotiations (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 21 November 2002).
The next meeting of the TNC will be held on 4-5 February 2003.
ICTSD reporting; "Supachai cites ‘mixed’ results, expresses concerns for Cancun meeting," WTO REPORTER, 5 December 2002.