UNCTAD / ICTSD / HKU / IDRC Regional Dialogue “Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), Innovation and Sustainable Development”
by Jakkrit KUANPOTH, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University
Recently, intellectual property rights (IPRs) has become one of the hottest, most significant issues of trade negotiations. Despite the continued claim that IPRs facilitate research activities and encourage technology transfer, the impact of IPRs on socio-economic development process of developing countries has evidently reflected in many areas, including health, agriculture and education. IPRs will no doubt continue to have a significant impact on developing countries for many years to come.
The developing countries have faced the challenge of constraint optimisation on how to implement the WTO TRIPS Agreement in such a way to minimise the socio-economic costs and maximise the national benefits. The third world states are now facing increased pressure toward higher standards of IPRs protection (i.e. the so-called TRIPS-plus). The attempts of the developed countries to evolve the TRIPS-plus regime, which appears in the form of free trade agreement (FTA), provide opportunities for those countries to negotiate rules and commitments that go beyond what was not possible on the multilateral level.
By entering into an FTA with the developed countries, the developing countries see some advantages in tariff reductions of agricultural, clothing and other products, but at the same time it closes down the opportunity for the latter to put forward the issues of their concern through the WTO including the harmonisation of TRIPS and CBD, access to medicines, and protection of genetic resources, farmers’ rights and traditional knowledge.
This note explores the controversial TRIPS-plus issues under the FTAs that pose many challenges to the developing countries. Although the EU offers trade benefits under bilateralism to encourage some developing countries to provide higher level of IPR protection (for example FTAs between EU and Bangladesh and EU and Morocco), the note will only focus on FTAs signed by the US because of its leading role in this issue. The note will analyse the TRIPS-plus standard under an FTA between US and Singapore, a bilateral trade agreement (BTA) between US and Vietnam and the proposed US-Thailand FTA which might be based on recent US FTAs with other countries. It explores major TRIPS-plus issues and considers the broad implications of such rules under various headings, including patenting living organisms, effects on access to medicines, and protection of test data, trade marks, and digital technologies. Arising from the analysis outlined in the note, the final part concludes with some final remarks and key policy recommendations.