Global Proliferation of Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements: A Threat for the World Trade Organization and/or for Developing Countries

Abstract:     
The recent proliferation of bilateral and regional agreements can be described by two significant features: 1) being mainly North-South agreements, and 2) covering trade-related and non-trade-related issues, that go beyond the liberalization or protection recognized by the WTO. These so-called WTO-plus issues also cover issues in the area of intellectual property protection.

This paper aims at analyzing whether the described recent development poses a threat to the WTO or to developing countries. While focusing particularly on the field of intellectual property protection, the author argues that the threat of a deadlock in the WTO is unlikely. The strategy of forum-shifting during the international development of intellectual property protection suggests that the bilateral/regional level on the one hand and the multilateral level on the other alternate and will continue to do so.

For developing countries, the proliferation of PTAs that contain TRIPS-plus issues poses significant problems which need to be addressed. The pace with which bilateral and regional agreements proliferate threatens to undermine a large part of the policy space of developing countries. This paper aims at raising the awareness among the public, and developing countries in particular, of the costs of TRIPS-plus standards concluded in bilateral and regional trade agreements.

Keywords: F13, I1, K1, K3

JEL Classifications: bilateral and regional agreements, preferential trade agreements, intellectual property rights, TRIP

Working Paper Series