The Impact of the New World Order on Economic Development: The Role of the Intellectual Property Rights System

Since the establishment of the World Trade Organization, one of its pillars, the TRIPs Agreement, has been exposed to strong criticism. The main objection being that TRIPs works against the interest of the developing world. This criticism will be examined against the empirical data showing the actual economic development in developing countries, with a special focus on China and India. As those data reveal, the developing countries are to be viewed as beneficiaries of the new world economic order, of which TRIPs is an instrumental and integral part. To avoid frictions in international trade, it is, however, essential that all WTO Members strictly comply with all of their obligations, be it under TRIPs, GATT 1994, or other WTO instruments. Weakening of intellectual property rights is counterproductive.

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