WTO Director Calls 2015 A ‘Decisive’ Year, Says WIPO GI Act A Boost To WTO IP Talks

World Trade Organization Director General Roberto Azevêdo said at a press event yesterday that 2015 is a decisive year for the organisation. One of the main features is the potential conclusion of the Doha Development Agenda. He also said a recent agreement on geographical indications at the World Intellectual Property Organization would provide a boost to IP talks at WTO.

The tenth WTO Ministerial Conference will be held for the first time in Africa, in Nairobi, Kenya, from 15-18 December.

Intellectual property issues that are part of the Doha Round discussions include the international register for geographical indications, and disclosure of origin in patent applications, Azevêdo said. However, discussions have not yet gone very far on IP issues, as the conversation on IP has not truly started, he said.

Asked whether the recent agreement (IPW, WIPO, 21 May 2015) of the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications at the World Intellectual Property Organization would influence discussions at WTO about geographical indications, he said it is a positive development for WTO.

WIPO is more about IP rights and obligations themselves, he said, while the WTO conversation is more focused on trade-related aspects of IP.

To the extent that members are discussing these issues in WIPO, “I think it is a positive development for us because part of the ground of the discussion is already being covered in WIPO. It should make things more expeditious when we discuss some of those issues in the WTO,” he said.

More broadly, Azevêdo said two main areas of focus of the WTO’s work at the moment are the “Bali Package” adopted in 2013, and the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement also agreed in 2013. However, the agreement needs to come into force, with two-thirds of the WTO membership applying it.

A core element of the Bali decision is the delivery of outcomes for the least-developed countries, he said, including rules of origin, and preferential market access.

Work is also ongoing on the work programme to conclude the Doha Round, which is planned to be achieved by the end of July with all issues “back on the table,” he said. For the moment the core focus of the discussions is around three main subjects, he said: agriculture, industrial goods, and services. Services are lagging behind as members are waiting to see progress made on the two first issues, he said.

However, he said, at this point in time, political decisions are missing. Although WTO members are in “solution-finding mode, we are still not converging,” even if members are now mapping differences, which had never been the case, he said.

“We are floating ideas and testing ideas … but I do not feel the sense that we are coming to an agreement, even conceptually,” he said.

In a 1 June press release, Azevêdo remarked on the slow progress in key negotiating areas.

On the possibility that the Doha Round negotiations fail, the WTO director general said members will have to talk about what they want to do next. “But it is not the scenario I am working with,” he said.

Azevêdo was also asked if WTO was overshadowed by trade agreements. He said regional trade agreements were not a new phenomenon. However, he said, trade agreements are now involving big economic powers, and are covering broader disciplines than market access, such as intellectual property or the environment.

Ideas have traditionally been tested in bilateral trade agreements and if they prove to be working, those ideas are brought to the multilateral system for discussion, he said.

Other negotiations are ongoing at the WTO, he said, such as on two plurilateral agreements, which if negotiations are successful will apply to the whole WTO membership. The first is the Information Technology Agreement, which seeks to eliminate duties on IT products, and comprises 80 members. The second concerns environmental goods and services and pursues the same goal of lowering or eliminating tariffs on such goods and services.

This year the WTO is also celebrating its 20^th anniversary and on Sunday 14 June will open its doors to the public. The open door event is named “Merci Genève,” as a tribute to the WTO host city.

 

Image Credits: Catherine Saez