Unlike many other institutions the World Trade Organization (WTO) is the confluence of a number of ideas, which were formulated into a distinct entity charged with overseeing a rules-based regime for the furthering of transnational economic integration, specifically reduction to trade barriers. Underpinning this is are a few things: countries control their own futures through their exercising of their sovereignty which includes limiting themselves through binding multistate agreements, international laws must be formulated and obeyed, and the subjugation of the powerful state actors for the mutual self-interest of their less powerful partners. However while these are the basis for the WTO they are not without their innate flaws, chiefly the
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The TRIPS agreement is so contentious because it seemingly goes against the ideas of economic liberalization, which are the basis for the WTO and in the eyes of developing nations such as Brazil and India also go against the WTO development mission. To understand this let us briefly examine the adoption and implementation of TRIPS. In an ongoing case before the WTO pertains to the export of generic drugs produced by India and Brazil, while said drugs are patented in some of the countries where the drugs are being exported through such as the EU. Provisions related to patents in TRIPS, adopted in 1994 by the WTO, form the core legal argument for the protection of intellectual property. One of the problems with TRIPS is that the force countries to uphold the rights of private interests based primarily in the US and the EU, they tied WTO membership to adoption of TRIPS, meaning developing countries needed to subject themselves to the WTO’s dispute settlement system in matters including those in direct opposition to the democratic and liberal principles on which the WTO was based. Not only does TRIPS create further wealth concentration but it also imposes artificial scarcity on already disadvantaged people, leading to developing nations insisting that TRIPS must be interpreted through the lens of sustainable development and be narrowed so as not to impede access to essential medicines or infringe on innovation through overly broad technology provisions, however this results in contentious debates and jeopardizes current negotiations affecting the future efficacy of the
The TRIPS agreement is so contentious because it seemingly goes against the ideas of economic liberalization, which are the basis for the WTO and in the eyes of developing nations such as Brazil and India also go against the WTO development mission. To understand this let us briefly examine the adoption and implementation of TRIPS. In an ongoing case before the WTO pertains to the export of generic drugs produced by India and Brazil, while said drugs are patented in some of the countries where the drugs are being exported through such as the EU. Provisions related to patents in TRIPS, adopted in 1994 by the WTO, form the core legal argument for the protection of intellectual property. One of the problems with TRIPS is that the force countries to uphold the rights of private interests based primarily in the US and the EU, they tied WTO membership to adoption of TRIPS, meaning developing countries needed to subject themselves to the WTO’s dispute settlement system in matters including those in direct opposition to the democratic and liberal principles on which the WTO was based. Not only does TRIPS create further wealth concentration but it also imposes artificial scarcity on already disadvantaged people, leading to developing nations insisting that TRIPS must be interpreted through the lens of sustainable development and be narrowed so as not to impede access to essential medicines or infringe on innovation through overly broad technology provisions, however this results in contentious debates and jeopardizes current negotiations affecting the future efficacy of the