Post-Doha African Challenges in the Sanitary and Phytosanitary and Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement
by Hezron Nyangito
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Africa’s participation in the Uruguay Round processes that introduced major changes in international trade were marginal. In particular, sub- Saharan Africa lacked the capacity to engage substantially on the wide range of issues on the Uruguay Agenda. African countries were overwhelmed by the complexity of the negotiations and lacked the negotiating experience and expertise in economic policy analysis and in international law (Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), 1999). Because of the complexity of the entire system, African countries made commitments beyond their administrative and institutional capacity to implement.
As a result of the above factors, Africa has not experienced improved market access, particularly on agricultural commodities. At the conclusion of the Uruguay Round in 1994, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) had calculated that world income would grow by US$200-500 billion within six years. However, these gains would go mostly to the industrialized countries and that sub-Saharan Africa would lose US$1.2 billion a year during the period. Besides problems of market access, the weak industrial and technological bases in Sub Saharan African countries have also been major obstacles to taking advantage of the opportunities availed by liberalization of trade (ECA, 1999).
Africa’s capacity to participate in the subsequent rounds of trade negotiations (Seattle and Doha rounds) greatly improved largely because of policy analysis efforts made by African governments and regional and international bodies. Consequently, many African countries and the continent at large presented position papers on a number of issues such as the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) and Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Some of the issues raised by African countries, such as trade and debt and trade and 8 Post-Doha African Challenges in the SPS and TRIPS Agreement technology transfer formed part of the Doha Declaration. The focus in this paper is on the challenges for sub-Saharan Africa arising from Doha Declarations on SPS and TRIPS Agreements.
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