The Implementation Game: The TRIPS Agreement and the Global Politics of Intellectual Property Reform in Developing Countries - Tapa dura

The fight between North and South over intellectual property (IP) reached new heights in the 1990s. In one corner, large multinational companies and developed countries sought to protect their investments. Opposing them, developing countries argued for the time and scope to pursue development strategies unshackled by rules forged to bolster the competitiveness of richer countries. The result was the WTO's deeply contested Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Widely resented by developing countries, TRIPS nonetheless permits them some hard-won flexibility. Puzzling, however, is why some developing countries have used that flexibility and others have not. Even more curious is that many of the poorest countries have made least use of the room for manouevre, despite securing some extra concessions.

For developing countries, TRIPS did not end the pro-IP offensive. At the urging of industry lobbyists, powerful countries backtracked on the flexibilities in TRIPS and pursued even stronger global IP rules. To prevent precedents for weaker IP standards in poorer countries, they issued threats to market access, aid, investment, and political alliances. Further, they used new trade deals and, more subtly, capacity building (assisted by the World Intellectual Property Organization, among others) to leverage faster compliance and higher standards than TRIPS requires. Meanwhile, 'pro-development' advocates from civil society, other UN agencies, and developing
countries worked to counter 'compliance-plus' pressures and defend the use of TRIPS flexibilities, sometimes with success. Within developing countries, most governments had little experience of IP laws and deferred TRIPS implementation to IP offices cut-off from trade politics and national policymaking, making them more vulnerable to the TRIPS-plus agenda. In many of the poorest African
countries, regional IP arrangements magnified this effect.

For scholars of international political economy and law, this book is the first detailed exploration of the links between global IP politics and the implementation of IP reforms. It exposes how power politics occur not just within global trade talks but afterwards when countries implement agreements. The Implementation Game will be of interest to all those engaged in debates on the global governance of
trade and IP

Dr. Carolyn Deere is the Director of the Global Trade Governance Project at the Global Economic Governance Programme, University College, Oxford. She is also a Senior Research Associate at Oxford University's Centre for International Studies. Dr. Deere is the founder and Chair of the Board of Intellectual Property Watch - the leading news service on international intellectual property policymaking. She is also a Resident Scholar at the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Deere's publications include 'Greening the Americas: NAFTA's Lessons for Hemispheric Trade' (co-edited with Dan Esty, MIT Press, 2001). She holds a DPhil in International Relations (University College, Oxford), an MA in International Relations (Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)), and a degree in political economy from the University of Sydney.