Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 13 • Number 28 • 29th July 2009

Lamy Reports Little Progress in IP Talks

Discuss this articleShare your views with other visitors, and read what they have to say

WTO Members remain deeply divided on critical intellectual property issues in the Doha Round negotiations, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said on Monday at an informal consultation open to the entire Membership. Despite Lamy’s active involvement in the negotiations since March, Members remain at loggerheads over substantive matters, as well as over whether the current round of trade talks even has a mandate to address some of the intellectual property issues as part of the “single undertaking” of the Doha Round trade talks.

Two issues in particular have snarled discussions in the WTO’s Council of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS): whether to extend to all products the strong level of protection that is currently accorded to geographical indications, known as GIs, of wines and spirits; and whether the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement should be amended to require patent applicants to disclose the origin of any genetic resources or traditional knowledge involved in their inventions, to show that they have received permission to use the materials and knowledge, and to demonstrate that they are sharing the benefits with the original owners.

Since March, Lamy has held four informal consultations with a select group of 17 WTO members -Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, India, Egypt (for the African Group), the EU, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Switzerland, Tanzania (for the least-developed countries or LDC group), and the United States - that represent the major sides in the debate. Relaying the results of those meetings to the entire membership on Monday, the director-general provided an ‘unofficial snapshot’ of the state of play in the TRIPS negotiations.

On the issue of geographical indications extension, Lamy reported that Members could not agree on whether the extension of the protections beyond wines and spirits is even necessary, let alone what form it should take. ‘Geographical indications’ identify the country or region where the quality, reputation or other characteristic of a product is essentially attributable to that region. Strong protection of GIs already exists for wines and spirits - such as Champagne, Bordeaux and Cognac - and the ‘draft modalities’ proposed by supporters of GI extension call for this protection to be extended to other products, like Basmati rice or Parma ham. But such a move is opposed by countries like Australia and the US, who have argued that many GIs have become generic or semi-generic product names widely used around the world.

On the ‘disclosure’ issue, Lamy reported that members agree that they must address the misappropriation of genetic material and traditional knowledge. However, they have failed to find consensus on whether that goal would best be reached through an amendment to the TRIPS Agreement requiring patent applicants to disclose the origin of any genetic resources or traditional knowledge involved in their inventions or through other approaches, such as contractual agreements and databases.

Despite the lack of progress in the talks, Lamy remains cautiously optimistic. “While the consultation process has not bridged the gaps that have long defined debate on these issues, I believe the gaps are better defined. Their contours are better illuminated,” and “we must focus on what Members believe is practically achievable” Lamy told the WTO’s General Council on Tuesday.

The issues, which have been hotly debated since the launch of the WTO’s Doha Round of trade talks in 2001, have largely split the WTO Membership into two sides. In July of last year, a coalition of more than 100 developed and developing nations - including the EU, Brazil, India, many African countries, and Switzerland - put forward a set of ‘draft modalities’ that call for the Doha talks to include the extension of GI protection afforded to wines and spirits to all products, as well as an amendment to the TRIPS Agreement to address the ‘disclosure’ issue and make the accord compatible with the Convention on Biological Diversity (see Bridges Weekly, 16 July 2008, http://ictsd.net/i/news/bridgesweekly/12791/). But that group has been strongly countered by another coalition - whose members include Argentina, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States - that has opposed these ‘modalities’ on substantive and procedural grounds.

Wrapping up his remarks, Lamy told delegates on Monday that there was a consensus that he should continue consulting with members on the subject. His next such meeting with the group of 17 countries will be held on 8 October.

ICTSD reporting.