Minister of Industry and Commerce Luis Manuel Bonetti explained that the bill was prepared with the assistance of consultants from the World Intellectual Property Organization. “Nobody can be penalized, that’s what the arbitrage department of the WTO is for,” he says. He explained that Uruguay was excluded from the 301 listing of the US government because it has an intellectual property bill. He said that the 301 listing is illegal in regards to international order because no country has the right to self-designate itself as the certifier of trade policies of all countries. Dominican representative before the WTO, Federico Cuello explains, “Five years after the establishment of the WTO, it is unfortunate to observe how small and open countries such as ours are pressed to renounce rights acquired when ratifying the Uruguay Round agreements.” He said that the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is inspired on principles of equity and equilibrium. He said the DR is being forced to resign its rights to favor the most profitable and compact industry in the world, the pharmaceutical industry. And its consequences would be dramatic for the 8.5 million Dominican consumers, whose precarious income is barely enough to pay for the basic need basket, says the Minister. “It is necessary to create an awareness, especially in the minds of our business leaders, about the favorable margin that there exists to safeguard national interests in the application of TRIPS,” highlights Ambassador Cuello, the nation’s WTO expert. “Trips is not a model law, but an agreement that specifies minimum protection standards. Each country is free to apply those standards regarding its internal systems,” explains Cuello who says that that is what the country has done with the new intellectual property bill.
