Should Patent Protection Be Extended to All Developing Countries?

Abstract

HE Uruguay Round has extended the scope of GATT multilateral trade negotiations well beyond the tariffs that had occupied most previous negotiations.’ In addition to various non tariff barriers (which had also been dealt with to a degree in the Tokyo Round, as discussed in Deardorff and Stern 1983 and 1986), the Uruguay Round dealt with issues of trade in services, international investment, and intellectual property. Since these ‘new issues’ have conceptually quite different characteristics than the tariffs of previous negotiations, it is appropriate to examine them afresh to determine whether the objectives of the Uruguay Round negotiations can be considered economically sound. This paper describes such an analysis for a particular aspect of the intellectual property negotiations patent rights and in the process voices some skepticism about this aspect of the Uruguay Round’s objectives. Inclusion of ‘Trade Related Intellectual Property’ issues, or TRIPS, in the Uruguay Round agenda was done largely at the insistence of the United States. Firms in the United States have long been concerned that their position at the cutting edge of technological progress was being eroded by unauthorised copying of their intellectual property elsewhere in the world. While export of such ‘copied’ products back into the United States might be restricted under US law, this would provide little help in competition with the ‘pirate’ firms in third-country markets.