Trips to Doha - A Developing Trend

Abstract

The Doha Round of negotiations held during November 2001, have set an Agenda, for development, Trade and Intellectual Property compliances, by discussing the TRIPS Agreement. This was followed by Ministerial discussions held in Cancun in 2003, Geneva in 2004, in Honkong in 2005 and again in Geneva in 2006 and 2008.Subsequently, Annual Conference of WTO was held on 11th and 12th September 2008 in Geneva, Switzerland. This meet failed largely due to the fact that modalities for Agricultural and Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) did not succeed. This is a continuation of Doha discussions. However, Doha round of discussions provided for Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) by countries to protect the Tariff - for farmers. The WTO has plans to conclude the negotiation relating to Doha in 2010. This has been expressed by the Director General of WTO in his informal discussions with the member countries. It is therefore, considered that evaluating the Doha discussions and TRIPS provisions regarding thereto, will be a proper step, since it is being concluded soon. This Article thus analysis the provisions of Doha Round Discussions and TRIPS evaluations in these periods of time.