Brussels / Geneva, 17/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - In Geneva on Tuesday, in the context of multilateral negotiations on the Doha Agenda, the Union proposed a plan aimed at helping developing countries to gain advantage from biotechnological inventions that use the natural resources which they have in bountiful supply. The plan, presented in the form of concepts, highlights the compatibility that exists between the TRIPS Agreement on trade-related intellectual property rights and the Convention on Bio-Diversity (CBD), thus forming a link between the two texts of international law - trade and environmental law - that are likely to provide an answer to the major concerns of these countries regarding the commercial exploitation of their natural resources. The text advocated by the Union, which would make it possible to remedy the excessive permissiveness surrounding those making patent requests, would mainly consist in imposing a new obligation on them in the context of TRIPS. They would be compelled to reveal the geographical origin of organic raw materials, in order to encourage them - which they hardly ever do - to request patenting authorisation from the LDCs of origin and to equitably share their profits with these countries.
European Commissioner Pascal Lamy commented in Brussels that many particularly complex eco-systems could be "green goldmines" - medicinal products, new plant varieties and other advantages for the whole world, and it would only be fair towards the countries that have such resources if they were allowed to reap the profits. Through the approach it is proposing to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Union reaffirms its commitment to place development at the heart of the negotiations under way in Geneva, he said. Its "conceptual document" explores the relations between the Agreement of the same name that authorises the patenting of biotechnological inventions and the CBD, which safeguards biodiversity and assures the sustainability of exploitation, by seeking to demonstrate that their provisions, far from being conflictual as one usually supposes, are compatible and may even strengthen each other. In order to achieve this, Europeans are essentially proposing to establish a new obligation that would allow LDCs to know whether their resources have been exploited for commercial purposes. Many of them have more often complained at the fact that the fundamental principles of the CBD have not been respected and, notably, that those seeking patents do not even bother to ask for authorisation from the country they first drew the raw material for their invention or share with them the benefits stemming from it..
This issue is of no direct interest for Europeans but they hope, by raising it, to contribute to an equitable agreement at the end of the Doha Round, sources in Brussels stress. The Communication, that has just been submitted to the WTO TRIPs Council, also recognises the need to further protect ancestral knowledge, as well as the right of farmers of the developing world to reuse and exchange seeds, be they targeted by the TRIPs provisions or not.