The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

314 the world according to monsantocontrol) of areas that traditionally were a matter of public policy. The associationof these sectors with trade is so far from obvious that the drafters ofthe agreements got around the problem by using the expression “traderelated,”thereby pointing to the subterfuge.This was notably the case with the TRIPS agreement, which, it turns out,“was largely designed by a coalition of companies gathered under the nameof Intellectual Property Committee (IPC),” including the “major players inthe area of biotechnology,” as the researchers from Quebec pointed out. 8 Establishedin the United States in March 1986, the IPC brought togetherthirteen multinational corporations, principally from the chemical, pharmaceutical,and computer industries: Bristol-Myers, DuPont, FMC Corporation,General Electric, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Johnsonand Johnson, Merck, Pfizer, Rockwell International, Warner Communications,and Monsanto.As soon as it was established, the committee contacted the Union of Industrialand Employers’ Confederations of Europe (UNICE), official organof the European business world, and the Keidanren, the Japanese employers’confederation, to draft a common document, which was submitted toGATT in June 1988. Titled “Basic Framework of GATT Provisions on IntellectualProperty: Statement of Views of the European, Japanese, and UnitedStates Business Communities,” this document, which formed the basis forthe TRIPS agreement, was aimed at extending to the rest of the world thepatent system that already existed in the industrialized countries, whichall told, through the offices in Washington, Munich, and Tokyo, registered97 percent of the patents filed by companies (the vast majority from theNorth). The document framed the issue in these terms: “Disparities amongsystems for the protection of intellectual property result in excessive loss oftime and resources in the acquisition of those rights. Holders find that theexercise of their rights is hindered by laws and regulations limiting marketaccess and the repatriation of profits.” There followed a short paragraph:“Biotechnology, or the use of microorganisms in production, is a sector inwhich patent protection has fallen behind the rapid progress of medicine,agriculture, pollution reduction, and industry. ...This protection shouldapply to the processes as well as the products of biotechnology, whetherthey be microorganisms, parts of microorganisms (plasmids and other vectors),or plants.” 9Seemingly convinced that what might be considered a hijacking of GATT