Nov 28, 1987

TRIPS GROUP TO CONTINUE WITH UNFINISHED WORK IN 1988.

GENEVA NOVEMBER 27 (IFDA/CHAKRAVARTHI RAGHAVAN) - The Uruguay Round negotiating group on Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) had ended its fourth cycle of meetings with a decision that in effect carries forward into the new year its unfinished work in the two separate areas of TRIPS to GATT sources.

Sources said when the group ended its work for this year, the chairman gave a summing up that glossed over the issue of whether the initial phase of its work was over and it was moving into its subsequent negotiating process, or whether the tasks entrusted for the initial phase would have to be continued.

Third world sources said that there had been a similar glossing over in all other negotiating groups too, with the industrial and third world countries anxious to avoid a confrontation or breakdown on this issue at this stage.

The formulations would enable various protagonists, and particularly in U.S. and EEC, to present to their domestic audiences (and through their dominance of international news flows in third world as well) that the Uruguay Round is moving forward in the new year into actual negotiations.

However, third world participants said, the conclusion in TRIPS, as in other groups, show that the initial phase of examining suggestions and proposals, and relating them to the negotiating plan and objectives as well as the relevant GATT articles, is far from over and has to be continued in the new year.

The industrial countries, and particularly the three major protagonists (U.S.; Japan and EEC) have also sought in the TRIPS group to merge the two separate issues before the groups – clarification of GATT provisions, and elaboration as appropriate, of new rules and disciplines for intellectual property rights: and developing a multilateral framework to deal with trade in counterfeit goods.

The issue of TRIPS itself came on GATT work programme in 1982 in the context of the trade in counterfeit goods issue, but the major industrial protagonists at Punta del Este sought to use this opening wedge to bring on the agenda the task of rewriting a new multilateral framework on IPRS and merging the counterfeit trade issue in it.

Third world countries rejected this, and both the Punta del Este mandate, and the subsequent negotiating plan kept the two issues separate, with the negotiating plan in its initial phase placing the trips and counterfeit goods issues under two separate indents.

Third world sources said the U.S., EEC and Japan now trying again to focus their attention principally on virtually rewriting via GATT a new international framework on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRS), now governed by the Paris Conventions administered by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), and dealing with counterfeit goods trade as one of its elements.

Discussions in the initial phase have failed to resolve this gut issue of the scope of the negotiations, and have not even established the question of adequacy or inadequacy of the existing GATT articles to deal with the trade-related problems of IPRS, the sources said.

This will have to be resolved and a basis established by consensus before they could move forward the subsequent negotiations, a third world participant said.

At the end of the meeting, the chairman, Lars Anell of Sweden, is reported to have said that the group had undertaken "in a positive and constructive way" the tasks entrusted to it, and "it is of course clear that the group will need to continue its examination of the specific suggestions" as provided for in the negotiating plan.

A number of issues that have "loomed large" in the discussions in 1987, the chairman reportedly added, "will continue to figure prominently, such as the various views on the appropriate scope of the work as well as questions of the relevant GATT provisions, previous work on trade in counterfeit goods, and relationships between our negotiations and initiatives in other fora".

Third world participants noted that all these are part of the work to be completed in the initial phase, according to the negotiating plan, before the group could proceed to subsequent negotiating processes.

At the group’s meeting on November 24-25 this week, both Japan and the EEC put forward new proposals of theirs which in effect proceed on basis that the current state of protection of IPRS in international law is inadequate, and new disciplines and rules should be created and this through the general agreement.

Third world countries reportedly reserved their detailed comments on the papers to a subsequent meeting. But in their preliminary comments they are reported to have rejected the underlying approach, and made clear that the group should first review the relevant GATT articles and establish "an inadequacy" in the GATT provisions in dealing with "trade-related aspects" of IPRS already established and recognised, before contemplating any possible new rules and disciplines.

Also, it was not the business of the Uruguay Round negotiations to consider the adequacy or inadequacy of international law or provisions for IPRS, and these issues could only be addressed in the relevant international organisations, like the WIPO.

They also noted that the negotiating objective mandated the group "to ensure that measures and procedures to enforce IPRS do not themselves become barriers to legitimate trade", whereas the proposals now being formulated would make them and additional barrier and giving customs authorities at the border another instrument to harass and restrict imports.