[Ip-health] Letter to the FT: EU in danger of breaking its promise to the poor

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

EU in danger of breaking its promise to the poor

Published: May 24 2007 15:16 | Last updated: May 24 2007 15:16

 From Mr Carlos Correa and others.

Sir, The relationship between Europe and its former colonies in among
the African, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) countries has always
involved a promise: that Europe would be an ally in their struggle
against poverty and efforts to develop. That promise is in danger of
being broken.

In its economic partnership agreement (EPA) negotiations with the ACP,
the European Union seems to have forgotten the development dimension
and pursues an agenda that reflects primarily the interest of the EU
alone. This pattern is painfully evident in the EU=92s pursuit of new and
higher standards for intellectual property and other trade-related
areas. The EU is asking ACP countries, most of whom which are
least-developed countries, to:

=95 Make it more difficult for their students and academics to access and
afford educational materials on the internet, for example by enforcing
digital locks on information that should be publicly accessible;

=95 Impede their researchers and technicians from as they seek to
accessing information and tools needed for their work, and limit the
means available for poor countries to achieve their own technological
development;

=95 Restrict the full and traditional right of their farmers to save,
re-use, exchange and sell the seeds produced from their harvests,
making them dependent on global multinationals for their food security
and threatening agricultural biodiversity.

The EU argues that the economic partnership agreements are necessary to
comply with World Trade Organisation rules. While there is some dispute
about the necessity of this with respect to goods, it is unequivocally
clear that there is no WTO-related requirement to negotiate
intellectual property.

All available evidence indicates that increased levels of greater
intellectual property protection will generate more costs than benefits
to for ACP countries. Indeed, European countries only gradually
expanded that protection as they reached higher levels of development.
This possibility will be denied to ACP countries.

If the EU really wants to keep its promise to reduce poverty and
promote sustainable development, it should refrain from asking its
poorer trade partners to adopt intellectual property standards that may
retard rather than foster their social and economic improvement.

=95 Frederick M. Abbott, Edward Ball Eminent Scholar, Professor of
International Law, Florida State University College of Law

=95 Carlos Correa, Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies
on Industrial Property and Economics Law, University of Buenos Aires;
Member of the UK-Commission on Intellectual Property Rights

=95 Graham Dutfield, Co-Director, Centre for International Governance,
University of Leeds

=95 Sue Edwards, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development,
Ethiopia

=95 Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, Winner of the Right Livelihood Award
2000 and Champion of the Earth 2006, Ethiopia

=95 Gerry Helleiner, Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics, and
Distinguished Research Fellow, Munk Centre for International Studies,
University of Toronto

=95 Eddan Katz, Executive Director, Information Society Project;
Lecturer, Yale Law School

=95 Sisule Musungu, University of Bern, Switzerland

=95 Jerome H. Reichman, Bunyan S. Womble Professor of Law, Duke
University School of Law

=95 Joshua D. Sarnoff, Assistant Director, Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual
Property Law Clinic, Washington College of Law, American University

=95 Sir John Sulston, Nobel Prize Laureate and Vice-Chair of the UK Human
Genetics Commission

=95 Geoff Tansey, Joseph Rowntree Visionary for a Just and Peaceful
World, UK

=95 Jacques Testart, Research Director of the National Institute of
Health and Medical Research (INSERM), France

=95 Diana Tussie, Director of the Research Programme on International
Economic Institutions and of the Latin American Trade Network, Senior
Research Fellow at National Council for Technical and Scientific
Research (CONICET), Argentina

=95 David Vaver, Director, Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre,
St Peter=92s College, Oxford

=95 Ernst von Weizs=E4cker, Professor and former Chairman of the Bundestag
Environment Committee, Germany

=95 Ngaire Woods, Director of the Global Economic Governance Programme,
University College, University of Oxford

---------------------------------
Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
voice +41.22.791.6727
fax +41.22.723.2988
mobile +41 76 508 0997
thiru@keionline.org