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over pirated or counterfeit seeds and other related products, suggesting that the implementation and enforcement of the Plant Variety Protection Act (1999) is inadequate. It also notes a growing problem of counterfeit pharmaceuticals. In Thailand patents on plants and animals, as well as pharmaceutical patents have been area of most concern for public interest groups, academics and NGOs. Such groups would like to see plants and animals remain exempt from patent protection, and would like to see the standard of patent protection for pharmaceuticals not extended 22 . Furthermore the disclosure of origin where patents have been issued on inventions which utilise genetic resources in the US are desired on the FTA agenda by Thai public interest groups. These groups have been particularly persuasive and vocal to date, however the content of the FTA negotiations are confidential leading to criticism of the way the Thai Government has handled matters of participation (See section 3.8 for more details). Past bilateral FTAs sought by the US have established a template for such negotiations, one consistent factor of which is the pursuit of higher standards of patent and/or plant variety protection than that required of WTO member states by the TRIPS Agreement. Kuanpoth (2005) provides a useful side-by-side comparison of the FTA provisions of the TRIPS Agreement, the US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement, and the US-Singapore FTA with the implication that the standards demanded will continue to rise. This is indicative that the outcome of the FTA could go against the wishes of the broader Thai public and may have considerable effects on economic development, science and technology, Thai society, and most pertinent to this study, on biodiversity and traditional knowledge. Although the consequences are unclear, if Thailand were forced to remove patent exemptions on life forms under the FTA, it is evident that many Thai’s would view this as an action that could accelerate biopiracy. It could also make the Acts that have been developed either partially or completely redundant. On the other hand, the FTA represents an opportunity for Thailand to attempt to convince the US to implement requirements such as disclosure, PIC and ABS to their patent laws or other respective (eg biodiversity) laws. This however seems unlikely given the stance the US has taken in recent FTAs. The political and economic bargaining power, and even the negotiating terms of the FTA are clearly in the US’ favour. There are other concerns related to the patenting of plants and biological materials. Thai academic, Jakkrit Kuanpoth (2005) describes the broader potential implications below: The patenting of life when imposed through an FTA could have a considerable socioeconomic impact on the developing countries. Granting of patents on biological materials such as genes will cause a power shift in agriculture towards large biotechnology companies and will disrupt the access to essential products such as seeds or foodstuffs the same way as patents are unfairly restricting access to vital medicines for people in poor countries. Stricter protection for IPRs would increase monopoly powers of the right holders, generally multinational firms, allowing them to gain far greater control over the production chain of crops and food… Moreover, gene patenting will have detrimental effects on the research environment and generate negative effects on downstream innovation. 22 Particularly with regards to patent term, surgical methods and diagnostics, and data exclusivity requirements on the testing of drugs. 29
A leaked version of the US FTA position on IPRs has since been posted on the website ‘bilaterals.org’ indicating that they are seeking an extension of the patent term where there have been bureaucratic delays in patent examination, patentability of surgical methods, therapeutics and diagnostics for humans and animals, and complicated data exclusivity requirements on the safety testing of pharmaceutical drugs and agricultural chemicals. 23 This confirms the fears of civil society groups and concerned academics. This section highlights the numerous aspects of extraterritorial intervention, and economic coercion utilised by US trade and foreign policy. The full ‘package’ of the FTA, which some Thai politicians have touted as a ‘win-win’ situation, threaten to degrade or nullify the socially, environmentally and economically appropriate laws that have recently been developed through relatively open and participative means. Considering the methods with which the US has dealt with Thailand on trade and IP matters in recent years, Thailand should be highly cautious about how far it extends its IPR laws as part of the FTA. The ongoing US “ratchet” of higher IPR standards is likely to pressure Thailand to develop inappropriate IP laws that various civil society, academic groups and government departments have continued to oppose. The influence that such groups have had on the negotiations is discussed in further detail in section 3.8. As Braithwaite and Drahos (2000) note, the actions of the US government have increasingly been subject to the will of large corporate interests. Such actors have successfully manipulated official policy discourse to enrol the US and other countries to their cause. It is important to recognise that these large corporate interests are the ones driving the recent FTA negotiations, and Thailand needs to decide if it wishes to compromise its own sovereign laws to these interests. 23 Bilaterals.org Website: www.bilaterals.org/ Acc 9/2/2006. 30
Page 1 and 2: Governance and Micropolitics of Tra
Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS List of Tables, Figures an
Page 5 and 6: Abbreviations and Acronyms ABS ARCB
Page 7 and 8: Executive Summary (Thai translation
Page 9 and 10: passing of the Bill has suffered fr
Page 11 and 12: policy and law in this study. The u
Page 13 and 14: cases 3 , particularly where a reso
Page 15 and 16: 2. INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS, AGRE
Page 17 and 18: institutionalised in many developin
Page 19 and 20: germplasm originating in their gene
Page 21 and 22: e subject to exclusive intellectual
Page 23 and 24: guide for countries attempting to i
Page 25 and 26: described in section 2.7. The lates
Page 27 and 28: Switzerland took an alternate posit
Page 29 and 30: enefit sharing; (ii) protection of
Page 31 and 32: 2.8 International Treaty on Plant G
Page 33 and 34: Drawing upon these and the highly r
Page 35 and 36: The current Draft ASEAN Agreement a
Page 37: The use of such bilateral trade pre
Page 41 and 42: 3. GOVERNANCE IN THAILAND There are
Page 43 and 44: articles). The advocacy of groups s
Page 45 and 46: in some areas and stronger IPRs in
Page 47 and 48: is opposed to ex situ resources whi
Page 49 and 50: Licence Office. This has been sugge
Page 51 and 52: capita greenhouse gas polluters on
Page 53 and 54: Pennapa et al, 2001). It is claimed
Page 55 and 56: 3.4 Alleged Biopiracy Episodes and
Page 57 and 58: While the use of geographical indic
Page 59 and 60: were then taken by a Portsmouth Uni
Page 61 and 62: A number of subsequent Thai patents
Page 63 and 64: Of the biopiracy cases discussed he
Page 65 and 66: that was investigated by WIPO and U
Page 67 and 68: 3.5 Legislation and Bureaucratic Mi
Page 69 and 70: There are several aspects of the Pa
Page 71 and 72: Table 5: Development and Operation
Page 73 and 74: • twenty percent is allocated to
Page 75 and 76: Chapters Seven and Eight essentiall
Page 77 and 78: Furthermore he notes that it is not
Page 79 and 80: esources. A Community Forest Manage
Page 81 and 82: There have been ongoing meetings at
Page 83 and 84: 3.8 The Role of Civil Society, NGOs
Page 85 and 86: 3.9 Summary: Participation, Impleme
Page 87 and 88: Box 4: Indigenous Peoples and Local
Page 89 and 90:
4.2 Traditional Knowledge and Local
Page 91 and 92:
Box 5: Methods of Karen Pest and We
Page 93 and 94:
Table 6: Description of Threats Aff
Page 95 and 96:
Traditional Medicines of Baan Sopla
Page 97 and 98:
Although a full ethno-botanic inves
Page 99 and 100:
Baan Khun Khlang, Hmong Village, Kh
Page 101 and 102:
Rather than applying customs and ri
Page 103 and 104:
developing and many ‘Eastern’ c
Page 105 and 106:
This section provides an explanatio
Page 107 and 108:
5. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS The
Page 109 and 110:
PIC requirements should however be
Page 111 and 112:
Drahos, P. (2005) ‘Intellectual P
Page 113 and 114:
TK-FL Working Group (2005) A summar
Page 115 and 116:
IRRI, IRRI Welcomes Rice Research D
Page 117 and 118:
APPENDIX ONE Chronology of the Comm
Page 119 and 120:
It is recommended however that due
Page 121 and 122:
c. The PIC Coordinators are respons
Page 123 and 124:
. If the original source owners or
Page 125 and 126:
SECTION SIX - ABS-PIC FUND a. An
Page 127 and 128:
APPENDIX THREE - List of Relevant W
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