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= Power TRIPs which has kept the lobby machines working at full speed. The US, now supported by the EU, Canada and Japan, is pressing hard for the expansion of what can be covered under intellectual prop- erty rights in the agreement. Southern countries, however, appear determined to stand firm against US and industry pressure, proposing among other things to exclude biodiversity definitively from TRIPs. Genuinely concerned about the firm stance taken by developing countries, civil society and some international bodies such as the UN Convention on Biodiversity,” industry is joining forces to resist any weakening of its rights under the TRIPs agreement and is lobbying governments not to cave in. If industry has its way, the revised biodiversity article will make it impossible to exclude life-forms from patent law, and developing countries’ control over their biological resources will be further weakened. Ethical, socio-economic, cultural and environmental considerations will also be ignored, reducing the patenting of life to merely a matter of commercial interests. Industry has identified a major problem in international trade. It crafted a solution, reduced it to a concrete proposal and sold it to our own and other governments... The indus - tries and traders of world commerce have simultaneously played the role of patients, the diagnosticians and the physi - cians." a io = 2 Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or UN Convention on Biodiversity, ‘industry is joining forces to TRIPS, grant corporations the right to protect their "'intellectual resist any weakening of its rights under the TRIPs agreement and property" in all WTO countries. This forces WTO member states is lobbying governments not to cave in. If industry has its way, to apply minimum standards in seven areas of intellectual proper- the revised biodiversity article will make it impossible to exclude ty, including copyright and trademark protection, patents and life-forms from patent law, and developing countries’ control over industrial designs. their biological resources will be further weakened. Ethical, The TRIPs agreement is the brainchild of an industry coalition socio-economic, cultural and environmental considerations will with members from the US, the EU and Japan. The first initiative also be ignored, reducing the patenting of life to merely a matter was taken by the Intellectual Property Committee (IPC), which of commercial interests. brings together 13 major US corporations including Bristol Myers Squibb, DuPont, Monsanto and General Motors. The IPC was _ ¢ Financial Services Agreement: Servicing the North created with the explicit goal of putting TRIPs firmly on the This agreement is like taking back the neighbourhood. We GATT agenda." need a policeman on the block. We can't have governments According to a former Monsanto employee, one of the IPC's behaving in thuggish ways.” first tasks was 'missionary work’ in Europe and Japan in order to — Gordon Cloney, of the US-based International Insurance gather the support of corporate Council heavyweights for the TRIPs cam- paign.'’ UNICE and the Japanese . . In 1997, three new agreements were business organisation Keidanren The industry-dominated US signed within the framework of the were easy converts. A A WTO. One agreement dismantled tar- According to former Pfizer CEO delegation, with 96 out of the iffs on trade in information technology Edmund T. Pratt, who attended 111 members from the products, and another did the same for numerous GATT negotiations in the the telecommunications sector. In capacity of official adviser to the US corporate sector, called for December 1997, a third agreement was Trade Representative: "Our com- everything to be patentable, signed, on the liberalisation of the bined strength enabled us to establish . . . financial services sectors, including a global private sector government including plants and animals. banking and insurance. All three of network which laid the groundwork these "jewels in the WTO crown", as for what became TRIPs." EU Trade Commissioner Sir Leon In 1988, an industry paper on the Brittan termed them, were the result of "Basic Framework for GATT Provisions on Intellectual Property" systematic pressure on Southern governments by the European made it into the Uruguay Round negotiations, following lobby Union and the United States. campaigns in Geneva and on the national level. Not surprisingly, According to Brittan: "Europe was already a force for liberali- the position put forth by the influential US delegation was strik- sation in the Uruguay Round negotiations, but, in the sectoral ingly similar to industry's proposal. achievements that followed, Europe has unquestionably taken the The fundamental imbalance in the TRIPs agreement is that lead in pushing for greater and faster liberalisation of world mar- 23 Southern countries poss ery little "intellectual property"; fur- ets than any of our partners. thermore, they do not possess the resources to develop this sector The three sectoral agreements were shaped in very close coop- in the near future. However, they do contain most of the world's eration with European and US corporations. This can clearly be biodiversity, from which many pharmaceutical and agricultural seen in the case of the Financial Services Agreement, highlighted patents are derived. Calculations show that up to 80 per cent of y Brittan as a model for business involvement in future trade patents for technology and products in developing countries are negotiations. held by TNCs." This imbalance, coupled with concern about the This agreement, which entered into force on | March 1999, will ethical implications of the private ownership of life, prompted remove many obstacles for financial services corporations wanti- some Southern countries to oppose fiercely all forms of life-form ng to enter Southern "emerging markets", which until recently had patenting during the TRIPs negotiations. The industry-dominated olicies in place to protect the domestic banking and insurance US delegation, with 96 out of the 111 members from the corpo- sectors. It has been signed by 70 WTO member countries, and it rate sector,” called for everything to be patentable, including is predicted that it will liberalise over 90 per cent of the world plants and animals. market in insurance, banking and brokerage services.* The eco- The compromise result was a so-called "biodiversity provision" nomic interests are obviously enormous. Total global bank assets in the TRIPs agreement, which allows countries to exclude plants are estimated at more than US$41 trillion, while the insurance and animals from patentability under the condition that they sector brings in over $2.1 trillion in premiums, and trade in shares develop a similar system of protection (a so-called sui generis is worth over $15 trillion per year.** system). The biodiversity provision is slated for review in 1999, The Financial Services Agreement does not oblige countries to The industry-dominated US delegation, with 96 out of the 111 members from the corporate sector, called for everything to be patentable, including plants and animals. 14 = NEXUS — James Enyart, Monsanto DECEMBER 1999 — JANUARY 2000