Action for Community and Ecology in the Regions of Central America GREEN PAPER 3: Freedoms That Are Abolished

Table of Contents Introduction 1) Trade and Investment: a little history 2) What is in the FTAA Agreement? Biotechnology and the FTAA Protecting Intellectual Property Free Flowing Capital What about Free Flow of People? Militarization and Globalization in the Americas Free Trade and Economic Developmen 3) Making the FTAA a Reality Corporate Globalization in the Americas Dry Canal Megaprojects and the FTAA Dry Canal Megaprojects and the FTAA 4) The FTAA and the Future of the Hemisphere Protecting Corporate Profits FTAA Attacks the Forests 5) Is THIS What Democracy Looks Like? The FTAA's Threat to Democracy North American First Nations: Going Corporate? Free Trade and the Proliferation of Sweatshops 6)THIS is What Democracy Looks Like Free Trade and the Proliferation of Sweatshops 7) What You Can Do Sources Acronym List download this document (488k). ACERCA

Protecting Intellectual Property by Bob Naiman Center for Economic and Policy Research One provision which is common in so-called "free trade agreements" which their supporters don't like to talk about is the requirement that other countries follow U.S. patent and copyright laws. Adherence to U.S. patent and copyright laws is called "respect for intellectual property rights" by supporters of these provisions. One reason supporters of these agreements don't like to talk about intellectual property provisions is that they have nothing to do with "free trade." Just the opposite is true: these provisions are restrictions on trade. They are requirements that countries obey laws passed by other countries to grant corporations monopolies on producing certain goods. And respecting these monopolies can be very costly, particularly to developing countries. For example, while people in the United States who have AIDS may live for years with the latest treatments, contracting HIV/AIDS is an imminent death warrant for people in Africa. The key reason is that people and governments in Africa could not possibly afford Western AIDS drugs at patent-protected prices. The rules of the World Trade Organization designed to protect the intellectual property claims of multinational corporations have exceptions that are supposed to allow countries to prioritize making essential medicines affordable over respecting patent claims. But the policy of the U.S. government, at the behest of the pharmaceutical industry, has been to try to block developing countries from using these exceptions. This dispute, in the case of South Africa, led activist groups in the U.S. to disrupt campaign appearances by Vice-President Gore until the Clinton Administration agreed to reverse its policy. However, the U.S. continues to pursue provisions on intellectual property in trade agreements which would be stronger than the WTO provisions and thus make it difficult for developing countries to make essential medicines affordable. It is almost certain that the still-secret draft FTAA text contains provisions on intellectual property that go beyond the provisions of the WTO.