TRADE TOPICS

The Making of the TRIPS Agreement

Personal Insights from the Uruguay Round Negotiations

The “Making of the TRIPS Agreement” presents for the first time the diverse personal accounts of the negotiators of this unique trade agreement. Their contributions illustrate how different policy perspectives and trade interests were accommodated in the final text, and map the shifting alliances that transcended conventional boundaries between developed and developing countries.

The contributors highlight the enabling effect of a clear negotiating agenda, and underscore the important, but distinct, roles of the Chair, of the Secretariat and above all, of the negotiators themselves.

Contributors share their views on how intellectual property fitted into the overall Uruguay Round, the political and economic considerations driving TRIPS negotiations, the role of non-state actors, the sources of the substantive and procedural standards that were built into the TRIPS Agreement, and future issues in the area of intellectual property. They take a close look at such issues as copyright for software, patents on medicines and the appropriate scope of protection of geographical indications. In probing how negotiations led to an enduring agreement that has served as a framework for policy-making in many countries, the contributions offer lessons for current and future negotiators.

 
Published in 2015

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> Table of contents, notes on contributors, foreword, preface, list of abbreviations, disclaimer and editorial note

Part I — Introduction, context and overview

> Revisiting the TRIPS negotiations: Genesis and structure of this book — Antony Taubman and Jayashree Watal
> Thematic review: Negotiating “trade-related aspects” of intellectual property rights — Antony Taubman

Part II — Anatomy of the negotiations

> The TRIPS negotiations: An overview — Adrian Otten
> Working together towards TRIPS — Thomas Cottier
> Why we managed to succeed in TRIPS — John Gero
> Evaluating the TRIPS negotiations: a plea for a substantial review of the Agreement — Mogens Peter Carl
> Some memories of the unique TRIPS negotiations — Matthijs Geuze

Part III — Perspectives from the developed world

> Negotiating for the United States — Catherine Field
> Negotiating for Switzerland — Thu-Lang Tran Wasescha
> Negotiating for the European Communities and their member states — Jörg Reinbothe
> Photographic insert

Part IV — Perspectives from the developing world

> Negotiating for India — A.V. Ganesan
> Negotiating for Brazil — Piragibe dos Santos Tarragô
> Negotiating for Argentina — Antonio Gustavo Trombetta
> Negotiating for Malaysia — Umi K.B.A. Majid
> Negotiating for Hong Kong — David Fitzpatrick

Part V — Negotiating substantive areas of TRIPS

> Patents: An Indian perspective — Jayashree Watal
> Copyright: A Nordic perspective — Hannu Wager
> Copyright: An Indian perspective — Jagdish Sagar
> Dispute settlement in TRIPS: A two-edged sword — Adrian Macey

Appendices

> Lars Anell, Keynote speech at the TRIPS Symposium, 26 February 2015
> Status of Work in the Negotiating Group, Chairman’s Report to the GNG, 23 July 1990
> TRIPS excerpt of the Dunkel Draft, 20 December 1991