IPRs and development concerns in South Asia

The recent strengthening of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)&nbsp;regime has important implications for South Asian countries and presents various challenges. In this issue of South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment (SAWTEE)&rsquo;s Trade Insights publication, a&nbsp;collection of articles discuss different aspects of these challenges and explore what policy options are available to address them. In particular, the authors examine how South Asian countries can utilise the flexibilities in the WTO system to use IPRs as a tool to achieve their development objectives. <br /><br />Key issues discussed include the following: patents and protection of Traditional Knowledge promoting trade and pro-poor growth through Geographical Indications TRIPS flexibilities and access to medicine the nexus between Indian Laws and International IPR Conventions gender aspects of IPRs The articles highlight a number of important challenges for South Asian countries. These include: stronger IPR protection , especially on medicine, is likely to make healthcare expensive, and in most cases out of the reach of the poor in these countries the need to provide protection to new plant varieties may affect the biodiversity, agricultural systems and the rights of the local, indigenous and farming communities to benefit from their traditional knowledge developing countries need to be cautious that they do not bind themselves to implementing stricter IPR regimes than that required under the TRIPS Agreement &ndash; e.g. through &lsquo;TRIPS-plus&rsquo; clauses of bi-lateral trade agreements South Asian countries need to analyse how best to address the gender disparities in their societies while implementing IP related policies. A number of recommendations are made for addressing these challenges, including that South Asian countries should: utilise TRIPS flexibilities to ensure a more balanced approach to intellectual property protection try to rely more on home grown solutions while at the same time pursuing efforts to make the provisions on technology transfer within the multilateral regime more explicit and binding emulate the models of other Asian countries to safeguard their interests, including a well-coordinated national strategy to solidify their negotiating position. <br />