The Dominican Republic has joined with Cuba, Egypt and Honduras in formally requesting that the World Trade Organization (WTO) grant them a delay of five years to implement their Uruguay Round trade commitments regarding Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPs). Under the 1996 TRIPs agreement, all nations belonging to the WTO were to upgrade by January 1, 2000 their intellectual property laws and regulations to match the level of protection provided under generally accepted international treaties on patents, trademarks, copyrights, geographic indications, software, microchips and trade secrets. The four countries are insisting that the changes necessitated by the trade commitments are simply beyond their institutional capacity to meet by next January, and that countries that are less advanced technologically such as they should be allowed more time to make the transition. The petition will be examined at the next meeting of the WTO’s TRIPs Council, and probably will end up being discussed at the WTO Ministerial scheduled for Seattle. Developed nations, led by the United States and European Union (EU), are likely to strongly oppose the request, since it would lead to a flood of similar delays by other developing nations.In a related matter, the DR joined several other nations – Cuba, Egypt, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Nicaragua and Pakistan – in requesting that the next round of WTO multilateral trade negotiations extend the protection for geographical indications beyond wines and liquors to a series of other agricultural and food products.
