The inclusion of TRIPS-plus intellectual property (IP) provisions in bilateral agreements between the United States (US) and several developing countries has been the focus of much concern over the past few years. So far, the US has signed ten bilateral agreements with such provisions, largely with countries from Latin America and the Middle East. However, the scope of US activity may pale beside that of the European Union (EU), which covers a large group of countries from South America, Africa and Asia.
Ending an informal moratorium, the EU has begun, in recent months, to increase its activity in negotiating bilateral trade agreements and the European Commission has explicitly included a TRIPS-Plus mandate in its trade goals, stating that, ” [t]he EU should seek to strengthen IPR [Intellectual Property Right] provisions in future bilateral agreements and the enforcement of existing commitments …. ‘ The most significant set of negotiations that the EU is currently conducting is with the 76 member African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries under arrangements titled European Partnership Agreements (EPAs). These agreements will significantly change the tradit ional non-reciprocal trade preference relationship that existed be-tween the EU and ACP group of countries. They have the potential to alter, in one swoop, the entire landscape of international intellectual property. Countries that commit to certain standards and norms in bilateral agreements are likely to seek to have those same norms and standards enshrined in multilateral agreements at the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and other fora.
While important analysis has highlighted the potential negative impacts of the new agreements for the ACP countries on agriculture, trade in goods and services4, the issue of IP and its implications for ACP countries has not received much attention. Initial public discussion on the matter suggested that there would be no significant push by the EU to seek standards beyond those established by TRIPS, but recent proposals, papers and statements from the EU, including the new EU Trade Policy review paper5, point in a different direction. These suggest that the EU may indeed be seeking higher IP standards in areas of great concern to ACP countries. Based on this information, this focus piece aims to outline and clarify the approach of the EU to IP in the proposed EPAs and describe the approach of the ACP countries to IP in the EPAs. It concludes that the EU attaches central importance to IP in the EPA negotiations and that the success of the EU’s approach to the EPAs will have a negative effect on developing country prospects in IP negotiations in multilateral processes.