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The International Centre for Trade
and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), in collaboration with Environmental
Development Action in the Third World / Environnement et Développement
du Tiers Monde (ENDA), the Quakers United Nations Office (QUNO)
and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), have
organised a Regional Dialogue on the Economic Partnership Agreements
(EPAs), Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development for
the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The
Dialogue will be held in Saly, Senegal on the 30rd and 31th
of May, 2007. Participants will include members of the ECOWAS
as well as Mauritania.
Free Trade Agreements are often one
component of a larger political effort to deepen economic and
political relations between countries. Recently, the European
Union (EU) has become increasingly active in engaging in bilateral
and regional trade agreements with developing country partners.
These agreements have placed different emphases in areas including
trade in goods, investment, competition and intellectual property
(IP). The European Commission is currently negotiating EPAs
with six groups of ACP countries. These six regions are organized
in the following manner: (i) the Economic Community of West
Africa (ECOWAS); (ii) Central Africa (Communauté Economique
et Monétaire de l'Afrique Centrale or CEMAC); (iii) Common
Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA); (iv) The Southern
African Development Community (SADC); (v) the Caribbean Forum
(CARIFORUM); ;and (vi) the Pacific Group. All the EPA negotiations
are linked to a de facto deadline of the 31 December 2007 when
the waiver of the Cotonou Agreement ends.
One aspect of the EPAs that has generated
deep concerns among various stakeholders is the potential impact
that TRIPS-plus provisions could have over the use of flexibilities
and exceptions that have been designed to safeguard certain
public interest goals and advance development objectives. In
this regard EPAs raise many negotiation and implementation challenges
regarding policy coherence and the maintenance of flexibilities.
The overall objective of the Dialogue on May 30- 31, 2007 is:
1) To inform the ECOWAS on the ongoing EPA negotiations and
to provide a platform for discussion; 2) To increase understanding
of the impact of potential IP commitments in a future EPA between
the EU and ECOWAS; 3) To assist ECOWAS negotiators for the EPA
negotiation process in identifying offensive and defensive IP
issues and to preserve their interests in the negotiation process;
4) To explore linkages and identify options between sustainable
development policies and intellectual property in four specific
issue-areas including: a) copyrights and designs; b) geographical
indications and rural development; c) genetic resources and
traditional knowledge and; d) IP enforcement. More...
Report
(including ENDA letter of recommendations on EPA Priority Areas
in Intellectual Property sent to ECOWAS Secretariat)
