What is World Trade Organization?

The Uruguay round of GATT (1986-93) gave birth to World Trade Organization. The members of GATT singed on an agreement of Uruguay round in April 1994 in Morocco for establishing a new organization named WTO. https://journal.iba-suk.edu.pk:8089/SIBAJournals/

It was officially constituted on January 1, 1995 which took the place of GATT as an effective formal, organization. GATT was an informal organization which regulated world trade since 1948.

Contrary to the temporary nature of GATT, WTO is a permanent organization which has been established on the basis of an international treaty approved by participating countries. It achieved the international status like IMF and IBRD, but it is not an agency of the United Nations Organization (UNO). https://www.wto.org/

Objectives of World Trade Organization

The important objectives of WTO are:

1. To improve the standard of living of people in the member countries.
2. To ensure full employment and broad increase in effective demand.
3. To enlarge production and trade of goods.
4. To increase the trade of services.
5. To ensure optimum utilization of world resources.
6. To protect the environment.
7. To accept the concept of sustainable development.

Functions of World Trade Organization

The main functions of WTO are discussed below:

1. To implement rules and provisions related to trade policy review mechanism.
2. To provide a platform to member countries to decide future strategies related to trade and tariff.
3. To provide facilities for implementation, administration and operation of multilateral and bilateral agreements of the world trade.
4. To administer the rules and processes related to dispute settlement.
5. To ensure the optimum use of world resources.
6. To assist international organizations such as, IMF and IBRD for establishing coherence in Universal Economic Policy determination.

Role and Advantages of WTO India’s patent policy and trips

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. As of February 2005, 148 countries are Members of the WTO. In becoming Members of the WTO, countries undertake to adhere to the 18 specific agreements annexed to the Agreement establishing the WTO.

Of these agreements, Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is expected to have the greatest impact on the pharmaceutical sector and access to medicines. The TRIPS Agreement has been in force since 1995 and is to date the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property. The TRIPS Agreement introduced global minimum standards for protecting and enforcing nearly all forms of intellectual property rights (IPR), including those for patents. International conventions prior to TRIPS did not specify minimum standards for patents. At the time that negotiations began, over 40 countries in the world did not grant patent protection for pharmaceutical products. The TRIPS Agreement now requires all WTO members, with few exceptions, to adapt their laws to the minimum standards of IPR protection. In addition, the TRIPS Agreement also introduced detailed obligations for the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

However, TRIPS also contains provisions that allow a degree of flexibility and sufficient room for countries to accommodate their own patent and intellectual property systems and developmental needs. This means countries have a certain amount of freedom in modifying their regulations and, various options exist for them in formulating their national legislation to ensure a proper balance between the goal of providing incentives for future inventions of new drugs and the goal of affordable access to existing medicines.

India’s Patent Policy:

The philosophy of India’s Patent Act of 1970 varies enormously from the framework being established under TRIPs. There are several knowledge and information areas which India considers unpatentable. India has a large community of scientists and researchers among whom publication rather than gaining patents has been a concern. G.V. Ramakrishna, Chairman of the Disinvestment Commission points out that in India, “We (Indians) are accustomed to the notion that knowledge is free. Our whole orientation has to change from one that stresses intellectual attainment to one that protects intellectual property.” Industrialised nations conceive of patents as a fundamental right comparable to the right of physical property, whereas developing nations view it as “fundamentally as an economic policy question.” From the perspective of developed countries, intellectual property is a private right that should be protected as any other tangible property, but for developing nations, intellectual property is a public good that should be used to promote economic development. The following table illustrates the basic differences between India’s patent system and TRIPs:

Comparison of India’s Patent Act and TRIPs

Indian Patent Act of 1970                                                TRIPs

Only process not product patents in food, medicines, chemicals	Process and product patents in almost all fields of technology
Term of patents 14 years; 5-7 in chemicals, drugs	Term of patents 20 years
Compulsory licensing and license of right	Limited compulsory licensing, no license of right
Several areas excluded from patents (method of agriculture, any process for medicinal surgical or other treatment of humans, or similar treatment of animals and plants to render them free of disease or increase economic value of products)	Almost all fields of technology patentable. Only area conclusively excluded from patentability is plant varieties; debate regarding some areas in agriculture and biotechnology
Government allowed to use patented invention to prevent scarcity	Very limited scope for governments to use patented inventions

These differences in patent systems led to disputes in the GATT negotiations on the inclusion of IPRs in the WTO. The type of patent system that India established was clearly against the global IP regime promoted by the US. The main objection of the US is to the provision in India’s patent law that allows for process but not product  

patents in the area of food, drug or medicine. The United States terms the activities of India to find alternative processes as “piracy”. According to the US, Indian firms are copying technology developed by advanced nations. This is leading to large-scale losses for the US. The Pharmaceutical industry in the US has been especially vocal on this issue. Pharma, the association that represents US based https://ais.stamforduniversity.edu.bd/ pharmaceutical companies points out, “Based on the refusal of the Government to provide pharmaceutical patent protection, India has become a haven for bulk pharmaceutical manufacturers who pirate the intellectual property of the world’s research- based pharmaceutical industry.”

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