Intellectual Property, Trade, And Development: Can Foes Be Friends?(Global INSIGHTS)

Global governance in intellectual property (IP) has changed dramatically since the 1980s. What was once principally an instrument of national policy, where countries could tailor their IP regimes in accordance with national economic and social conditions, is now increasingly a policy area subject to international disciplines, where countries that fail to conform to new global standards risk retaliation in the form of losing trade privileges. The centerpiece of the new international regime is the inclusion of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) in the new World Trade Organization (WTO). Is TRIPs a "friend or a foe" of international development? Observers from across the ideological and methodological spectrum tend to criticize TRIPs, assail its implications for development, and regret the inclusion of IP in the WTO. The World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (organizations that are not frequently in agreement on development issues) express concern that full implementation of TRIPs will generate significant resource transfers from poorer countries that primarily use IP to wealthier countries where most IP owners are based. Development economists argue that TRIPs encourages poorer and middle-income countries to adopt IP systems that are inappropriate for their levels of scientific and technological development. Liberal trade economists complain that TRIPs introduces protectionism into an institution geared toward dismantling barriers to the flow of goods and services, and that contentious debates over IP clutter the multilateral negotiating agenda and the WTO's dispute settlement system.