Poor Nations Urged To Press For Trips Amendment

This has been suggested by Pat Mooney of the Ottawa-based Rural Advancement Foundation International in a paper prepared for the forthcoming second International Crop Science Congress next month in Delhi. The congress will discuss, among other crucial issues concerning crop productivity, the report of a working group on preparedness of developing countries to cope with protected trade systems.

Mooney has pointed out that the Uruguay Round accord on TRIPS provided for all developing countries to enact patent legislation on micro-organisms and crop varietal protection by 2004. The review of TRIPS to be undertaken by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2000 would provide an opportunity to the developing nations to negotiate a better deal for them.

 

Each country should assess its own national situation and then develop coherent regional and global strategies to reduce the negative impact of TRIPS and to strengthen the intellectual integrity of farming and indigenous communities, Mooney says in his paper. The developing countries are generally not prepared to deal with intellectual property protection in the field of agriculture and trade, he maintains.

While it is important for countries to develop a clear understanding of the implications of intellectual property protection for their national economies and evolve suitable policies, it is not necessary for them to adopt intellectual property protection legislation in these fields, he says.

The report of the working group also observes that the developing countries would have to prepare themselves to cope with new situations as the protected trade systems involved both tariff and non-tariff barriers. They would have to pay special attention to areas like TRIPS, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, aggregate measure of support to farmers and minimum market access.

While the developing countries, especially in the tropics, are invariably rich in agro-biodiversity, industrialised nations have biological technologies to convert biodiversity into wealth. The developing countries should identify their comparative advantages in capturing export markets which could emerge when industrialised countries reduce subsidies to farmers as required under the world trade agreement, the report says.

The crop science congress will discuss the report of another working group on mechanisms for fostering sectoral linkages headed by H K Jain, former director of New Delhi-based Indian Agricultural Research Institute. The need for a closer linkage between public and private sector crop research has become even more important with the rise of biotechnology and with the institution of intellectual property rights, the report of this group says. Briefing reporters about the Congress, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) director-general R S Paroda said the deliberations of this international meet would be of special significance as the impact of the green revolution was already waning and new strategies were needed to raise farm production.

Diminishing per capita availability of land and water resources coupled with expanding biotic and other stresses had further intensified the challenges, he said. However, there were also some bright spots on the horizon. The new tools of genetic engineering, germplasm enhancement and crop modelling offer new opportunities for producing yet better plants.