WTO Paper Summarises Discussion On Biological Diversity Convention

The World Trade Organization secretariat has issued a new paper on the relationship between WTO rules on intellectual property rights and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The 78-page paper, which reflects the past eight years of discussion on the issue at the WTO, is now available on the WTO website.

The paper is an update of a 10-page paper from 2002. In 2002, following the 2001 Doha Declaration, the CBD became a significant part of the discussions of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

CBD-related issues at the WTO include a review of TRIPS Article 27.3(b) on the patenting of plants and animals, a proposed requirement for the disclosure of origin of materials in patent applications, and the protection of traditional knowledge.

The paper is more of a compilation than a summary and a number of papers on the issue have been submitted to the WTO since 2002, some of them quite lengthy, a WTO source said. For example, countries such as Peru have shared experiences on issues such as potential biopiracy.

The WTO said that some member countries requested several months ago that the secretariat prepared the paper, but as some proposals had been submitted as recently as November, the paper has only been finished now in order to reflect as many proposals as possible.

The paper (IP/C/W/368/Rev.1, revised 8 February 2006) is available at: http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/art27_3b_e.htm and look under “Secretariat documents.”