Trade Rules and Competitiveness • Volume 8 • Number 11 • 13th June 2008

TRIPS: Members Differ on Whether to Include Biodiversity in Horizontal Negotiations


As negotiations in key areas of the Doha Round, such as agriculture and industrial goods, have moved into a stage where countries are looking at the overall compromises needed to clinch a deal, Members are struggling to decide how to move issues related to the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement forward. Among the contentious issues is a long-standing debate on whether the TRIPS agreement should be amended to bring it into line with the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in terms of disclosure requirements. The other outstanding issues relate to the creation of a register for geographical indications (GIs), and GI extension.

Chair of the TRIPS special sessions, Ambassador Manzoor Ahmad (Pakistan), authored a document (TN/IP/18, available at http://docsonline.wto.org) on negotiations regarding the creation of a multilateral system for registering GIs - product names associated with places and characteristics - for wines and spirits. Ahmad’s report declined to discuss the TRIPS biodiversity amendment or GI extension issues, calling them “beyond the mandate” of the special session he chairs, which is limited only to issues regarding the GI registry for wines and spirits. A second report (WT/GC/W/591 - TN/C/W/50), issued by Director-General Pascal Lamy, covered the two other issues.

Included in Lamy’s paper was reference to an official submission (WT/GC/W/590 - TN/C/W/49) by India last week to the highest-level negotiating body, the Trade Negotiations Committee that operates under the WTO General Council. India submitted the document, which argues in favour of the TRIPS biodiversity amendment, on behalf of a large group of developing countries, including the least developed country group and the Africa Caribbean and Pacific group. The amendment in question concerns the introduction of a mandatory requirement for the disclosure of origin of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge in patent applications.

Meanwhile, two recent ‘non-papers’ reflect the division in negotiations, reasoning either for or against the inclusion of these three IP issues in the agenda of the forthcoming TRIPS Council meeting, scheduled to take place as part of the horizontal negotiations in the overall Doha round.

On the one hand, some WTO Members believe that these issues should be part of the horizontal process in order to have modality texts that reflect ministerial agreement on the key parameters for negotiating a final draft legal text as part of the single undertaking. Yet other Members maintain that no further guidance is necessary since the existing mandate is sufficiently clear and technical work can and should be pursued on this basis.

The TRIPS Council will take place from 17-18 June.

ICTSD reporting; “Reports on WTO IP Negotiations released,” INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY WATCH.