[Ip-health] Development Agenda meeting agrees to technical assistance proposals

[Sangeeta]

Please find below the first SUNS report on the WIPO Development Agenda
meeting held last week in WIPO and reproduced here with permission.

Best Wishes
Sangeeta Shashikant
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Development Agenda meeting agrees to technical assistance proposals

SUNS #6270 Wednesday 13 June 2007

Geneva, 12 June (Sangeeta Shashikant) -- A week-long meeting on the
Development Agenda at the World Intellectual Property Organisation has
produced initial results through an informal agreement on four proposals on
WIPO's technical assistance activities.

The second and final meeting this year on the Development Agenda is taking
place on 11-15 June at the Provisional Committee on Proposals Related to a
WIPO Development Agenda (PCDA).

The heated atmosphere of previous meetings when the Development Agenda
initiative started as a result of efforts by developing countries has
changed to a more business-like atmosphere at this meeting, as the delegates
attempt to finalise the whole set of proposals and to prepare a report of
recommendations for the WIPO General Assemblies later this year.

Observers of the Development Agenda process note that major developed
countries for many meetings had strongly resisted the initiative led by the
Friends of Development Group. However, these countries now seem to accept
that the Development Agenda will become part of the future agenda of WIPO,
and they are trying to shape it by engaging with the proponents.

Besides finalizing a list of proposals, this week's meeting is expected to
discuss the future institutional framework and the follow-up activities for
the Development Agenda, which would have to be reflected in the report to
the WIPO General Assembly. The report should contain "recommendations for
action on the agreed proposals, and on a framework for continuing to
address, and where possible, to move forward, on the other proposals
following the 2007 General Assembly".

This week's meeting began on Monday with opening plenary statements by
regional groupings and representatives of some NGOs. The official meeting
was then suspended and work continued through the informal consultative
process involving representatives of regional groupings held in a small
room.

The informal process is considering proposals for the Development Agenda
grouped in six clusters, with a regional grouping coordinating one of the
clusters. Cluster A is on Technical Assistance and Capacity Building
(coordinated by GRULAC); Cluster B on norm setting, flexibilities, public
policy and public domain (Africa Group); Cluster C on Technology transfer,
information and communication technology and access to knowledge (Asian
Group); Cluster D on Assessments, Evaluation and Impact Studies (Central
European and Baltic States); Cluster E on Institutional matters including
mandate and governance; and Cluster F on Other Issues (Caucasian, Central
Asian and Eastern European Group).

This week's meeting is discussing a set of proposals (that had mainly been
put forward by the Friends of Development Group) contained in Annex B of the
Committee's working document (PCDA/3/2). Another set in Annex A has already
been discussed in the Committee's earlier meeting in February, and 24 of the
40 proposals had been adopted.

The informal consultation (which is chaired by Ambassador Trevor Clarke of
Barbados, who also chairs the PCDA) began work on Cluster A (Technical
Assistance and Capacity Building) and reached agreement on four proposals:

-- To assist Member States to develop and improve national IP institutional
capacity through further development of infrastructure and other facilities
with a view to making IP institutions more efficient and promote fair
balance between protection and the public interest. This technical
assistance should also be extended to sub-regional and regional organization
dealing with IP.

-- To assist Member States to strengthen national capacity for protection of
domestic creations, innovations and inventions and to support development of
national scientific and technological infrastructure, where appropriate, in
accordance with WIPO's mandate.

-- To further mainstream development considerations into WIPO's substantive
and technical assistance activities and debates, in accordance with its
mandate.

-- WIPO's legislative assistance shall be, inter alia, development-oriented
and demand driven, taking into account the priorities and the special needs
of developing countries, especially LDCs, as well as the different levels of
development of Member States and activities should include time frames for
completion.

The African group has also proposed a fifth proposal for WIPO to examine
TRIPS flexibilities and give advice to developing countries on how to gain
access to medicines and food. However, the language of this proposal is
still being negotiated.

There were originally 16 proposals under this Cluster. But Barbados (which
coordinated the cluster) said that the rest of the proposals would not be
pursued either because these were agreed to in February or the proponents no
longer wish to pursue the proposals, the proposal has been dropped or the
proposal has been reflected in other clusters.

Several developing countries are concerned with a number of questions, as
the week progresses: whether the agreed proposals in Annex A will be
reopened, the implementation of agreed proposals, the fora that will discuss
and monitor the implementation of the agreed proposals and how to proceed
with the proposals on which there is limited agreement.

The Algerian Ambassador Idriss Jazairy, on behalf of the African Group, said
that the "African Group considers the implementation phase of the adopted
recommendations as important, if not more important than the negotiation
process, hence the importance of establishing an intergovernmental mechanism
for the implementation of the recommendations on Development Agenda which
would ensure the required degree of efficiency and transparency".

The Ambassador added that the outcome of the WIPO Development Agenda "could
include the adopted proposals, the framework to continue the examination of
the pending proposals, the implementation mechanism along with the
provisions on the relevant financial and human resources which are necessary
to bring this endeavour to a successful conclusion".

Argentina, on behalf of the Group of Friends of Development, said that the
proposals agreed to in the meeting in February should not be reopened.
Barbados, on behalf of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries
(GRULAC), also said that a vast majority of the delegations were of the view
that Annex A should not be reopened.

It also recognized the "need to deal adequately with the institutional
framework, including the mandate, and the architectural mechanisms for
implementation and oversight of agreed recommendations". It added that it is
"open to discussing the early implementation of self-executing
recommendations".

Work on the proposals is expected to be finalized by Wednesday while
discussion on the draft report to the GA that will contain recommendations
is expected to be begin on Thursday, with the draft report being adopted on
Friday.

An informal meeting was held in Singapore on 30 May-1 June (similar to a
meeting held in Delhi preceding the first PCDA meeting) to prepare for this
week's meeting. In Singapore, the African Group, the Group of Friends of
Development and the Singapore government each presented non-papers for
discussion, although no formal negotiated document was produced from the
meeting.

In the Friends Group non-paper, 25 proposals were listed as proposals that
should emerge from this week's meeting. One of the proposals was a proposal
to "renew the mandate of the PCDA for 2 years in order to review the
implementation of the agreed recommendations and to continue discussions of
proposals that were not subject of a decision in the 2006 General Assembly".

On Monday, the PCDA meeting started with opening statements. On behalf of
the African Group, Ambassador Jazairy of Algeria said that the Development
Agenda would allow promoting a well balanced international IP system, which
would be adapted to the needs of developing countries, promoting research,
the transfer of technology along with incentives to innovate while truly
acting as a catalyst in the growth process in the countries concerned.

He said the tightening of intellectual property laws may be damaging to
developing countries, and the unilateral stretching of IP protection and the
continuous expansion of the level and scope of IP had the most adverse
effects on developing countries. This had proved to be a burden on economic
and social costs, thereby hampering the very development of these countries.

Referring to the TRIPS Agreement, the Group said that IPRs adopted in the
globalization era had worsened the situation in developing countries which
required alignment with patent systems of the developed countries,
undermining the ability of developing countries to safeguard interests as in
health. These provisions eventually reduce the opportunities of using the
flexibilities and exceptions needed to safeguard public interests such as
health.

It wished that developing countries can take advantage of the same
flexibilities which the majority of developed countries enjoyed when they
were at the same development stage, adding that this is why the IP regime
should include provisions on respect for national policy space. This policy
space is "indispensable" since it is about subscribing to international
obligations, and since the countries do not have the legal or technical
instruments to face anti-competitive trade related practices.

The Africa Group said that no IP system however reliable can ever be
sufficient to meet the development needs of disadvantaged countries. IP norm
setting should be governed by guidelines that counterbalance IP protection
with public access to knowledge and know-how.

Saying that the high cost of IPRs perpetuates the current imbalance of
learning and access to information, the Group called on WIPO to play an
active role in transfer of technology, and access to knowledge enhanced
through the extension of the public domain. The main goal of the Development
Agenda is to operationalise the development dimension of IPRs.

Algeria also called for wider participation of non-governmental
organizations in WIPO.

China stressed that full consideration should be given to the different
levels of development of member states and called for "appropriate policy
space" for developing countries. It added that protection of IP should be
balanced with public interest protection and that the protection of
innovation be balanced with transfer of technology.

It also said that WIPO as a UN agency has the responsibility to provide for
an effective platform for developing countries and through pragmatic efforts
to ensure that developing countries really benefit from IP.

The US said that the current framework in WIPO is sufficient to address
development. It added that WIPO should deepen its expertise on IP and not
stray away from it. It also said that efforts to weaken IP and to change
WIPO's mission would not be consistent with the Development Agenda. +