[Ip-health] Oxfam briefing paper: Three Reasons to Say No to CAFTA

[Mike Palmedo]

(This report was put out last September)

http://www.oxfamamerica.org/pdfs/cafta_090303.pdf

Agriculture, Investment and Intellectual Property: Three Reasons to Say
No to CAFTA

Oxfam, September 2003

Summary

[snip]

There is a growing awareness among Latin American civil society and
governments that the trade rules at the World Trade Organization (WTO)
and in the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) will have
serious negative consequences for national development and poverty
reduction strategies.

While the WTO and FTAA negotiations falter, the US government has
adopted a strategy to prioritize bi-lateral trade agreements such as the
US-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). These agreements are
an attempt to lock countries into commitments that go further and deeper
than the WTO and pave the way for the FTAA.

[snip]

The intellectual property (IP) rules that the US wishes to include in
CAFTA are another cause for serious concern. Access to knowledge,
research, science and technology is essential for development and
poverty reduction.Yet CAFTA is likely to increase their cost
substantially. Ordinary people will feel the effect through paying more
for medicines or textbooks. Small businesses will pay more for software,
and farmers will pay more for seeds.

Central American countries are already obliged to introduce damagingly
high levels of IP protection by the WTO=92s Agreement on Trade-Related
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which increases the cost of
imported technologies. CAFTA could lock Central American countries into
TRIPS levels of IP protection, so that if and when TRIPS is reformed,
the region would still maintain those levels. Furthermore, the US is
insisting on a number of TRIPS-plus measures in CAFTA, which would make
a bad situation worse.

Oxfam=92s Make Trade Fair campaign seeks to change international trade
rules so that trade and investment can contribute to sustainable
development and reduce poverty. In the framework of this campaign and
based on our program experience in Central America and the United
States, Oxfam proposes a different type of integration with radical
changes to those proposed in CAFTA. Focusing on three key themes of
agriculture, investment and intellectual property, this document
illustrates the reasons why Oxfam says no to CAFTA and outlines the
policy and practice changes that we recommend.

[snip]