[Ecommerce] Egypt/USA FTA: TRIPS is not enough

[Manon Ress]

Intensive talks to solve disagreement over Free Trade Agreement
Egypt-USA, Economics, 9/30/2005

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/050930/2005093030.html

Intensive talks between Egypt and the USA currently take place as a
preliminary step toward concluding a Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
between the two countries.

The talks cover the viewpoints of both parties, especially in regard
to the rules of protecting the intellectual property.

The Department of Trade Relations and Inventions' Patents at the US
capital Washington, witnessed discussions on the points of
disagreement between the Egyptian and American viewpoints.

Micheal Adeline, the Legal Advisor for Trade Marks and member of the
US delegation said that the USA requests Egypt to abide by an
additional treaty in the domain of intellectual property "TRIPS
PLUS," while Egypt view is to abide by the "Treaty Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights" issued by the World Trade Organization
(WTO).

In his meeting with the Egyptian delegation, currently in Washington,
Adeline pointed that the American side stressed the necessity of
developing the courts and judicial bodies so that the judgment would
be written, based on evidences, to be available to the public.

He pointed that the most important points of disagreement lie in the
fact that the Egyptian judiciary doesn't give a decision to destroy
the imitated commodities, while the "TRIPS PLUS" provides for their
destruction.

Adeline further said that the "TRIPS PLUS" requires that the
government would prevent the entry of imitated commodities without
regard to any complaint from the owner of the trade mark.

It would also require more government efforts to prevent the digital
piracy through imitated CDS, given that such piracy, that spread out
through the internet, should be confronted in a firm and resolute
manner.

He pointed that it is the nature of abiding by the intellectual
property treaties to attract investments, boost economy, and provide
protection for the citizens.

It was found out that 7 percent of the World Commodities in
circulation are imitated. This results in heavy losses to the World
economy, especially in regard to the vital and strategic Commodities
such as milk, car Spare parts, medicines, and batteries of cell phones.

The imitated Commodities result also in the increase of organized
crime, piracy, and migration of minds to other countries.

He concluded that it's probable that meetings will be held between
Egypt and the USA during November, pointing that according to the
latest assessment of intellectual property, Egypt has become on top
of the countries which abide by the TRIPS.




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Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology
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