On Friday, 22 March 2024, Ambassador Mauricio Alberto Bustamante Garcia, Lasting Mission of Colombia to the World Trade Firm (WTO) shipped the pursuing assertion at the WTO Basic Council in relation to the submission by Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, and India on Excursions for Improvement: Submit MC13 work on Journeys-linked Challenges – Interaction from Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt and India.
The proposal can be found in this article:
The communication (WT/GC/W/925, IP/C/W/708) by Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, and India mentioned:
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1. We, retaining in mind the approaching 30th anniversary of the Excursions Arrangement, phone upon the Council for Visits to undertake and finalize its initial evaluation less than Short article 71 on the implementation of the Journeys Arrangement.
2. Pursuant to paragraph 19 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration, we ask for the Council for Outings to expedite ongoing operate to look at the partnership concerning the Excursions Arrangement and the Convention on Organic Range, and the security of traditional expertise and folklore.
3. We also contact upon the Trips Council to take a look at how the Trips Arrangement could facilitate transfer and dissemination of technologies to producing countries including LDCs.
4. We further more simply call on the Council to look at the Visits Settlement, the Doha Declaration on the Visits Settlement and General public Health of 2001 and the Ministerial Choice on the Outings Agreement of 2022, to overview and construct on the lessons learned through COVID-19, with the intention to tackle the considerations of producing international locations which include LDCs in the context of wellness emergencies together with pandemic.
5. In undertaking this function, the Journeys Council shall be guided by the objectives and principles set out in Content articles 7 and 8 of the Visits Arrangement and shall choose absolutely into account the advancement dimension and shall deliver a report on the development produced, which include any recommendations, to the Ministers at the 14th Ministerial Convention.
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Colombia opened by noting:
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“Just 2 or 3 many years in the past the entire world professional a pandemic that paralyzed our societies and gave increase to the most essential debates on mental house. Global well being turned one particular, and conversations about fairness and obtain to medications took on a renewed role in all our conversations. The Journeys guidelines were pushed to the limit and harshly questioned by a extremely important amount of international locations.”
Currently, a several meters from right here, a pandemic treaty to greater respond to foreseeable future pandemics is staying talked over by our exact nations around the world at the WHO, with complicated and profound conversations about the function of IP in the diversification of manufacturing, fairness and accessibility.”
On climate alter, Colombia stressed:
“At the exact time, the environment faces a weather disaster. We all concur that we will need the fast dissemination of eco-friendly systems for mitigation and adaptation. The much more competitiveness there is, the far more economic actors are authorized to participate, then the a lot more successful and equitable our reaction to the troubles of local climate adjust will be. Even so, the existence of exclusivity rights in excess of systems slows down and will make this dissemination a lot more tough. Collectively evaluating the stability concerning better velocity and diffusion, on the one particular hand, and the advertising of innovation by some actors on the other, is of study course a crucial issue in currently’s planet.”
In conditions of WTO in dealing with the intersection of IP and wellness, local climate modify, and geopolitical tensions in technological know-how, Colombia mentioned:
“And the strictest mental residence policies belong listed here, to the WTO. Not to WIPO, not to the UN, whose treaties or provisions are a lot a lot less demanding. The WTO Journeys Agreement is the basis of the present institutional rules scheme pertaining to intellectual home, and its checking and discussion belongs and need to happen in this home, in the WTO.
And still… at the WTO Ministerial we determined not to discuss about any of this.”
The initial intervention in Spanish and the English translation are reproduced below.
Intervención de Colombia
Consejo Typical OMC 21 y 22 de marzo de 2024
PUNTO 5
LOS ADPIC PARA EL DESARROLLO: LABOR POSTERIOR A LA CM13 SOBRE LAS CUESTIONES RELACIONADAS CON LOS ADPIC – COMUNICACIÓN DE BANGLADESH, COLOMBIA, EGIPTO Y LA INDIA
Español
Gracias señora presidenta y gracias a los copatrocinadores de este punto de agenda.
El escenario asociado a la propiedad intelectual ha venido cambiando de manera vertiginosa en los últimos años.
Hace apenas 2 o 3 años el mundo vivió una pandemia que paralizó a nuestras sociedades y originó los más álgidos debates en propiedad intelectual. La salud global se hizo una sola y las discusiones sobre equidad y acceso a medicamentos adquirieron un rol renovado en todas nuestras discusiones. Las reglas del ADPIC fueron llevadas al límite y duramente cuestionadas por un número muy significativo de países.
Hoy se discute, por nuestros mismos paises, un tratado pandémico en la OMS para responder mejor a las futuras pandemias, con discusiones difíciles y profundas sobre el rol de la propiedad intelectual en la diversificación de la producción y en la equidad en el acceso.
Por otro lado, los costos en salud que afectan los presupuestos de todos nuestros países han venido creciendo de manera sostenida y drástica en los últimos años de la mano de nuevas tecnologías.
Esto ha hecho que todas nuestras economías estén tomando medidas y que incluso las economías más grandes en esta sala estén tomando decisiones audaces sobre flexibilidades en el marco del ADPIC y sobre manage de precios de medicamentos. Eso quiere decir que sí se puede, que hay margen para mejorar el acceso a los medicamentos. El gasto público worldwide tiene un componente en salud que crece sin parar, fuertemente atado a derechos de exclusividad que por naturaleza incrementan los costos.
Al mismo tiempo, el mundo enfrenta una disaster climática. Todos estamos de acuerdo en que necesitamos la rápida diseminación de tecnologías verdes para la mitigación y la adaptación. Ahora bien, la existencia de derechos de exclusividad sobre las tecnologías ralentiza y dificulta esta diseminación. Evaluar colectivamente el equilibrio entre una mayor velocidad y difusión, por un lado, y la promoción de la innovación de algunos actores, por otro, es un tema important en el mundo true.
Ahora bien, la propiedad intelectual está también en el centro de los debates sobre desarrollo tecnológico, autonomía, sofisticación de las cadenas productivas e incluso seguridad nacional. Los grandes debates geopolíticos se explican fácilmente en términos tecnológicos. La brecha tecnológica entre paises en desarrollo y desarrollados, o la creciente competencia tecnológica entre actores estatales, tiene un componente basic en la propiedad intelectual.
En suma, la propiedad intelectual está en el centro de los debates más importantes de nuestro tiempo:
Salud humana,
Cambio climático,
Sostenibilidad presupuestal,
Desarrollo económico del mundo en desarrollo,
Tensiones geopolíticas en tecnología.
Y las reglas de propiedad intelectual más estrictas están acá, en la OMC. No en la OMPI, no en la ONU, cuyos tratados o disposiciones son menos estrictas.
Y sin embargo… en la MC13 decidimos no hablar de nada de esto.
Varios países dijeron de manera explícita y reiterada que no se hablaría sobre propiedad intelectual en la CM13. A pesar de ser uno de los tres pilares de esta Organización junto con los bienes y los servicios, y a pesar de ser la foundation de los principales problemas de nuestro tiempo, resulta entonces que era mejor no hablar de propiedad intelectual.
Solo un párrafo valioso, pero en todo caso repetido de la Ministerial previa, y finalmente una decisión sobre reclamaciones no basadas en una infracción que entró a los resultados ministeriales “in extremis”. Esos fueron los únicos y magros puntos que se lograron.
Sin embargo, había otros puntos sobre propiedad intelectual que se propusieron discutir en la Ministerial, sin éxito. Colombia manifestó su descontento desde el momento en que las modalidades y la agenda propuesta para la ministerial no incluían ninguna discusión de propiedad intelectual. Es irónico que luego de la Ronda de Uruguay, en la cual un número de países, especialmente en desarrollo, decía que la propiedad intelectual no debía de ser parte de la OMC, mientras que otros, especialmente desarrollados, decían que period essential incluirla en la OMC. Hoy los roles se han invertido. El mundo en desarrollo quiere tener una conversación al respecto. El mundo es cada vez más dependiente de tecnologías protegidas por la propiedad intelectual y, sin embargo, no queremos hablar de eso.
Y hay que decirlo: no fue solo la Ministerial. El Consejo de los ADPIC, medicamente hablando, está anémico. A pesar del gran trabajo de la Embajadora Pimchanok de Tailandia y de la Secretaría, y sus esfuerzos en intentar hacer avanzar el Consejo del ADPIC, su agenda ha permanecido prácticamente la misma desde hace décadas y el Consejo no avanza en ninguno de los temas globales asociados a la propiedad intelectual que interesan a todos.
En el Consejo del ADPIC se reúne un nicho técnico de excelentes funcionarios, relativamente reducido en tamaño, pero francamente se dejó de lado la discusión de política pública en torno a los objetivos que persigue esta Organización y el Acuerdo de propiedad intelectual.
Señora Presidenta, con este punto de agenda, de la mano de nuestros copatrocinadores, queremos invitar a los Embajadores a retomar este tema a que se involucren más a que desmitifiquemos las discusiones sobre propiedad intelectual y las hagamos más plurales y abiertas a que le perdamos el temor a abordarlas más allá de sus tecnicismos. El ADPIC no es física nuclear, es política pública que busca un equilibrio entre la innovación y el acceso y es uno de los pilares de la OMC. Por lo tanto, estas discusiones no deberían ser eliminadas en las Ministeriales, o limitadas a un nicho de expertos específico.
El grupo de países que solicitamos este ítem de agenda tiene suggestions y propuestas para comenzar a abrir más la discusión. No son las únicas, animamos a todos a traer propuestas sobre este Acuerdo al centro de esta Organización, al centro donde pertenece y cada vez con más fuerza. Colombia, en specific, hará una serie de propuestas asociadas a la revisión periódica de la aplicación del acuerdo que se debe hacer según su artículo 71.
Nos dijeron que éste es un tema que se debe tocar en el Consejo del ADPIC y no en la Ministerial allí estaremos haciendo propuestas concretas y esperamos que allí por fin se le dé cumplimiento después de 30 años de espera .
Gracias presidente.
(English)
Thank you pretty substantially, Madam President, and several thanks to the co-sponsors of this Agenda Item.
The scenario linked with intellectual assets has been changing speedily in recent a long time.
Just 2 or 3 yrs ago the globe professional a pandemic that paralyzed our societies and gave rise to the most crucial debates on mental residence. World overall health turned a single, and conversations about fairness and entry to medicines took on a renewed role in all our conversations. The Trips procedures were being pushed to the restrict and harshly questioned by a really significant number of nations.
Currently, a several meters from in this article, a pandemic treaty to superior respond to upcoming pandemics is remaining discussed by our same nations at the WHO, with hard and profound conversations about the function of IP in the diversification of generation, fairness and obtain.
On other hand, overall health expenses that impact the budgets of all our international locations have been increasing steadily and drastically in the latest several years, and this induced mainly by new systems. This has manufactured all our economies to acquire motion, and even the biggest economies in this area are now getting daring selections on flexibilities underneath Excursions and on drug rate controls. That implies that this is attainable, there is space to boost entry to medications and health goods. International public paying out has a steadily increasing overall health component, strongly tied to exclusivity legal rights that by mother nature enhance costs.
At the similar time, the earth faces a weather crisis. We all concur that we need the immediate dissemination of inexperienced technologies for mitigation and adaptation. The more competitors there is, the far more financial actors are authorized to take part, then the extra successful and equitable our response to the troubles of local weather change will be. However, the existence of exclusivity rights around technologies slows down and would make this dissemination extra complicated. Collectively examining the stability involving increased pace and diffusion, on the one hand, and the marketing of innovation by some actors on the other, is of class a very important issue in nowadays’s environment.
More, intellectual residence is also at the heart of debates on technological enhancement, autonomy, sophistication of production chains and even national stability. The excellent geopolitical debates are easily defined in technological conditions. The technological gap between acquiring and made countries, or the escalating technological opposition among condition actors, has a elementary ingredient in mental property.
In brief, intellectual home is at the heart of the most significant debates of our time:
Human Well being,
local weather alter,
budgetary sustainability,
economic development of the developing environment,
geopolitical tensions in engineering.
And the strictest mental property regulations belong below, to the WTO. Not to WIPO, not to the UN, whose treaties or provisions are a lot significantly less strict. The WTO Journeys Agreement is the foundation of the existing institutional procedures plan regarding intellectual property, and its checking and discussion belongs and must take place in this household, in the WTO.
And nevertheless… at the WTO Ministerial we determined not to chat about any of this.
Many nations around the world explicitly and continuously reported that intellectual assets would not be talked about at the ministerial. Inspite of remaining 1 of the 3 pillars of this corporation together with products and products and services, and even with getting the basis of several of the major complications of our time, it turns out that it was superior not to converse about mental property. Only a worthwhile paragraph, but in any circumstance a recurring paragraph from the prior ministerial, and more a choice on non violation promises that entered the ministerial final results ‘in extremis’. Those were being the only, and meager, points that have been achieved.
Even so, there have been other factors on Mental Property that have been proposed as discussions for the Ministerials, to no avail. Colombia expressed its discontent from the pretty minute that the modalities and agenda proposed for the ministerial did not include any dialogue of mental residence. It is even ironic that just after the Uruguay Round, in which a variety of nations around the world, primarily producing types, explained that intellectual assets should not be element of the WTO and other people, specially designed ones, mentioned that it was vital to include things like it in the WTO, currently the roles have been reversed. The acquiring globe desires to have a discussion. Without a doubt, the earth is increasingly dependent on IP-protected systems, and however we don’t want to chat about it.
And it need to be explained: it was not just the Ministerial. The Excursions Council, medically talking, is anemic. In spite of the excellent do the job of the Ambassador Pimchanok of Thailand and the Secretariat, and its endeavours to advance the Trips Council, its agenda has remained pretty much the exact same for a long time and the Council has not created development on any of the world-wide problems associated with mental house.
The Visits Council provides collectively a quite specialized market of outstanding officials, fairly compact in size, but frankly the community coverage dialogue with regards to the objectives pursued by this Organization and the Intellectual House Agreement is lacking.
Madam President, with this agenda product, collectively with our co-sponsors, we want to invite the Ambassadors to return to this topic, to get a lot more included to demystify discussions about intellectual property and make them much more plural and open to drop the dread of addressing them past their technicalities. The Visits is not nuclear physics: it is general public coverage that seeks a harmony involving innovation and access, and is a single of the pillars of the WTO. Consequently these discussions simply cannot carry on to be deserted in the Ministerials, or minimal below to a really narrow specialized niche of gurus.
The Group of nations that requested this agenda merchandise has suggestions and proposals to open the dialogue a lot more. About the assessment, about the Biodiversity Conference, about discovering from the pandemic, about the technological evolution of establishing nations. These are not the only issues, we motivate every person to deliver proposals linked to the guidelines of the Agreement to the centre of this Corporation, exactly where it belongs, and with raising value. Colombia in specific will make a series of proposals related with the periodic critique of the implementation of the arrangement that must be completed according to its article 71. We have been advised that this is an concern that should be resolved at the Outings Council, so we will be creating concrete proposals, and we hope that such a mandated discussion will eventually be fulfilled following 30 yrs of waiting around.
Thank you president
The put up WTO Typical Council (March 2024): Colombia’s intervention on Outings for Growth: Write-up MC13 perform on Visits-associated Difficulties – Communication from Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt and India appeared initially on Awareness Ecology International.