Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 11 • Number 6 • 21st February 2007
WIPO Development Agenda Meeting Underway
Another round of talks on a ‘development agenda’ for the World Intellectual Property Organisation is underway, as the committee responsible for the issue kicked off a week-long meeting on 19 February.
The Provisional Committee on a Development Agenda is examining some 111 proposals that have been made since 2004, when a group of developing countries, led by Brazil and Argentina, launched an initiative calling for UN developmental objectives to be integrated into every aspect of WIPO’s mandate and functioning. The talks have remained controversial, pitching developing and developed countries against one another, and the committee is well past its original deadline for agreeing on reforms (see BRIDGES Weekly, 4 October 2006).
The current meeting had been slated to consider 40 of the proposals which had been deemed to have more widespread support. The talks started uncontentiously, with members assenting to base discussions on a document prepared by former PCDA Chair Enrique Manalo (Philippines), in which he organised the 111 proposals into a subject-based matrix in an attempt to facilitate discussion.
Negotiators spent the first day largely on procedural issues and general statements. Most countries said that they wanted to present WIPO’s September General Assembly with a list of recommendations for action. Canada added that it felt a "positive spirit more than ever to achieve a common ground." Morocco mentioned its disappointment that no concrete result had been made after two years. Many delegations praised Manalo’s work as chair.
The next two days involved detailed discussion of the proposals and their provisions. The US stressed that it was supported to the idea of a development agenda but it pointed out that in their view the Development Agenda had not been adopted yet.
New PCDA Chair Ambassador Trevor Clarke (Barbados) expressed hope that an agreement would be concluded by the end of the year. The secretariat is taking note of the points raised by delegates, and will present them with a new document on the various perspectives by the end of the week.
In the run-up to the session at WIPO, the Indian government hosted a gathering in New Delhi from 5-7 February to try to provide input to the discussions in Geneva. Participants looked at the development agenda proposals, and streamlined the 40 originally set for consideration into 22. These focused mainly on technical assistance, norm-setting, flexibilities for public policy and the public domain, technology transfer, information and communication technologies and access to knowledge, assessments and impact studies, institutional matters and other issues. The document they came up with was submitted as an informal input, or ‘non-paper’, to the PCDA.
Participants at the New Delhi meeting hailed from over twenty countries, and took part in their personal capacities.
During the WIPO session, countries including Russia and Switzerland praised India for taking this initiative, describing it as a ‘useful exchange of views and ideas’.
The next issue of BRIDGES Weekly will provide further coverage of the PCDA meeting.
ICTSD reporting; "Flurry of activity before next week’s Development meeting," SOUTH-NORTH DEVELOPMENT MONITOR (SUNS), 14 February 2007.