<div dir="ltr">This links to intellectual property, as Gandhi said, how we treat the most vulnerable is how to judge a civilisation... nice idea... <br><div><div class="gmail_quote"><br><u></u>
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<div>TWN Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Jun13/04)<br>7 June
2013<br>Third World Network<br><a href="http://www.twn.my" target="_blank">www.twn.my</a></div>
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<div><b>Please Stop Bullying the World's Poorest
Countries<br></b><i>By Matthew Kavanagh </i></div>
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<div><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-kavanagh/please-stop-bullying-the-_b_3391927.html" target="_blank">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-kavanagh/please-stop-bullying-the-_b_3391927.html</a></div>
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<div>This week, the Obama administration's trade agenda hit a bit of snag as the
nominee to be lead trade negotiator was challenged over <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b3315ca8-cdcd-11e2-8313-00144feab7de.html#axzz2VMuViVDc" target="_blank">holding
a half million </a>dollars in offshore accounts. But as the President prepares
to head for Africa this month, that's largely a distraction from a much bigger
fight that should be more in the news: the U.S. bullying of least developed
countries over intellectual property rules.</div>
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<div>In a move that has been roundly criticized by everyone from <a href="http://http://www.msfaccess.org/about-us/media-room/press-releases/incoming-wto-director-general-urged-make-access-medicines" target="_blank">Doctors
Without Borders</a> to the <a href="http://http://www.eifl.net/eifl-statement-support-lcd-trips-waiver" target="_blank">world's
librarians </a>and the <a href="http://www.ccianet.org/?sid=5&artid=363&evtflg=False" target="_blank">U.S.
technology industry</a>, the Obama administration has taken the position that
least developed countries must implement World Trade Organization rules on
intellectual property within the next five years. Haiti, Bangladesh, Lestotho,
and other Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have proposed an alternative: let the
poorest countries in the world focus on getting medicines to their people,
making textbooks available, and getting technologies to mitigate the effects of
climate change instead of creating patent offices and enforcing the copyrights
of multinational corporations. Their proposal simply suggests least developed
countries should implement WTO rules when they are no longer officially "least
developed." Remember these are the poorest countries in the world -- not rising
powers like India or South Africa -- countries classified by the UN as facing
the most dire poverty. But U.S. negotiators have rejected that and are
strong-arming countries instead.</div>
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<div>For those who (like most of the world) have not been following the WTO
recently as it has seemed to fade into irrelevance, a bit of background: When
the WTO agreement was signed, the members agreed that LDCs would not have to
implement the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
agreement for a period of 10 years, which was extended for another 7 ½ years,
but is now set to expire at the end of the month.</div>
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<div>There is literally <a href="http://infojustice.org/archives/29370#_ftnref4" target="_blank">no clear evidence</a> that
implementing a strong patent system helps poor countries. That's why the <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/12/05/we_were_pirates_too" target="_blank">U.S.
refused to grant patents </a>on British technology when we were a developing
country and needed to build up our industrial base. Today, LDCs are in exactly
the same position, but the U.S. is trying to foreclose the route that most
countries in the world have taken to prosperity. The promise in 1994 was that
rich countries would help LDCs to develop through transferring technology and
help in their development -- so that they would reach a level of prosperity that
might enable them to benefit from intellectual property rules. But it never
happened -- today LDCs are largely falling further and further behind the
wealthy world.</div>
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<div>LDCs face <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-kavanagh/www.unctad.org/en/Docs/presspb20118_en.pdf%E2%80%8E" target="_blank">massive
development challenges</a>: More than half of the LDC population lives on less
than $1.25 per day; adult literacy rate in LDCs is on average at 60.7%; only
about 5 out of 100 have access to the worldwide web. In fact, more than half of
the LDC population do not have access to electricity, water or sanitation
facilities. LDCs are <a href="http://www.unohrlls.org/UserFiles/File/Elle%20Wang%20Uploads/UN_LDC_Factsheet_061610.pdf" target="_blank">also
dealing with </a>natural disasters from severe droughts to earthquakes and
tsunamis along with political instability.</div>
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<div>Yet these are the countries that the Obama administration wants to focus on
implementing intellectual property rules?</div>
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<div>There are important reasons that LDCs should not enact these outlandish
rules on IP. Not only is there no evidence it will help them grow, the costs are
incredibly high. Just to name a few areas <a href="http://healthgap.org/s/LDC-extension-Fact-Sheet-Final.pdf" target="_blank">of concern</a>,
WTO rules would likely: </div>
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<li><i>Make life saving medicines too expensive:</i> LDCs, by definition,
face substantial health problems, but TRIPS IP rules drive up the price of key
medicines by allowing them to be patented. Life-saving technology gets put out
of the reach of patients and national health programs.
</li><li><i>Condemn students to outdated books and software:</i> Both the
distribution and translation of important books -- even out of date ones --
are routinely blocked by copyright rules. LDC education budgets, though, can
rarely afford new bulk purchase of copyrighted books, a reasonable selection
of academic journals for universities, or licensed copies of software.
</li><li><i>Undermine farming & food systems:</i> As our Supreme Court showed
last month, IP can hinder traditional farming practices by preventing free
exchange of IP-protected seeds and varietals that will be increasingly
essential in places facing soil depletion and food insecurity.
</li><li><i>Make it impossible to adapt green technologies to fit tropical and
low-resource climates:</i> Is it illegal for Bangladesh, the most climate
insecure country in the world due to sea-level rise and river flooding, to
adapt Israeli-designed water filtration systems to work in a low-resource,
tropical setting? Without permission of the multiple-patent holders it could
be under TRIPS.</li></ul>
<div>What makes this especially cynical is that, when the WTO rules were
negotiated, the LDCs were promised this would not happen. Anticipating that it
might take some countries a long time to reach prosperity (as it did for the
U.S.), the TRIPS Agreement (<a href="http://infojustice.org/archives/29370://" target="_blank">Article 66.1</a>) says that the
Least Developed Countries "SHALL" be granted an extensions if they submit a
"duly motivated request," which they did last November. But instead of granting
that extension without conditions, the U.S, is extracting concessions.</div>
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<div>Can the U.S. win this negotiating round? Of course -- the most powerful
country in the world vs. the weakest. But should it? No.</div>
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<div>Members of the U.S. Congress have <a href="https://healthgap.squarespace.com/s/LDC-IPR-Waiver-Letter-to-USTR-FINAL-5-14-13-1.pdf" target="_blank">called
on the Administration </a>to respect the rules of the game and support a full
extension--not just a few years. Civil society groups representing millions <a href="http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/CSO-Letter-Supporting-Extension-of-LDCs-Transition-Period.pdf" target="_blank">agree.</a>
UN agencies <a href="http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2013/february/20130226prtrips/" target="_blank">do
too</a>.</div>
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<div>The only ones who do not, it seems, are President Obama's diplomats in
Geneva. U.S. negotiators, it seems, do not know when its no longer ethical to
play hardball.</div>
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