Hard Bargaining In IP Chapter Of Trans-Pacific Partnership, Trade Ministers Say

Intellectual property is still one of the most complex and challenging areas of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), as some countries are holding fast to high levels of IP protection to promote innovation and creativity, while others continue to seek a greater emphasis on access to ideas. This appears to be the message of today’s statement from trade ministers of countries negotiating the TPP.

The “trade ministers report to leaders” is available here.

“[I]nnovation is an important source of benefits for our people and growth and competitiveness for our economies, and have worked hard to develop balanced commitments on intellectual property that promote and share the benefits of innovation,” the statement says. “This is one of the most complex and challenging areas of the agreement, but we have made substantial progress in developing common approaches that will promote creative and technological advances that will benefit all of us.  We also have worked hard to strike an appropriate balance that ensures our citizens’ access to medicines and to fair use of on-line content, and that reflects the diversity of TPP economies.”

Intellectual property is among the areas lacking agreement, they said: “We also are continuing to seek solutions on the remaining issues in the text of the agreement, including related to intellectual property, State-owned enterprises, environment, and investment.”

Meanwhile, there appears to be greater progress on e-commerce or another aspect of the digital economy.

“Recognizing the economic potential of the Internet, including for small businesses looking to reach new markets, and noting that the number of Internet users worldwide has proliferated in the past several years and will only continue to grow, we are far along in reaching agreement on rules that will promote the development of the digital economy, in a manner consistent with governments’ legitimate public policy interests, such as regulating for the purpose of privacy protection,” they said.

A recent draft of the agreement was leaked last month (IPW, Bilateral/Regional Negotiations, 17 October 2014).