The TRIPS Agreement A Comment Inspired by Frederick Abbott’s Presentation.pdf

The TRIPS Agreement: A Comment Inspired by Frederick Abbott’s Presentation * T.N. Srinivasan It is indeed an honour for me to participate in celebrating Robert Hudec’s contributions. Bob and John Jackson have long been the icons of International Trade Law for me. Having interacted with both as a participant in the Bhagwati-Hudec project on Fair Trade and Harmonization, and as an avid reader of Bob’s several contributions relating to Developing Countries and the GATT, I have come to appreciate the intellectual rigour and precision of Bob’s analyses. Earlier today, there was a reference to the fact that Bob, like John Maynard Keynes who changed his mind on the virtues of free trade several times, changed his mind about the Dispute Settlement Mechanism of the WTO in comparison to that of GATT, from initial skepticism of it to a later much more favourable view. It is said that foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. But all of us know that Bob’s is no small mind! I received Professor Abbott’s Talking Points several weeks ago. Since no formal paper followed, I took the liberty of e-mailing him for it. In response, I received several of his papers on the topic though not a paper written specifically for this event. I read them all and profited from them greatly. I will take this opportunity to reflect on the TRIPS agreement from the perspective of developing countries, rather than comment on his Talking Points directly. My comments draw on his other papers. I agree with many of his views. I have argued (Srinivasan (1998)) that it was a colossal mistake to have included TRIPS in the WTO, as one of the agreements that was part of the single-undertaking framework of the Uruguay Round agreement, for at least two reason