As a professor of economics at the PUCMM university, former Dominican ambassador to the World Trade Organization Federico Cuello is urging that Congress approve the bill for Market Order presently in Congress. He said this bill was sent to Congress in 1998, but since then it has expired several times and, worse yet, its contents have been greatly altered. Cuello says that sections on copyright and industrial property were approved. He writes that while there has been a selective application of rules of intellectual property, he lamented that all this has been happening without the prior approval of a competitiveness framework. The bill as originally conceived fostered a climate for the promotion of competition, consumer protection, repression of unfair competition and intellectual property integrity, while ordering that a hierarchically, financially and jurisdictionally autonomous regulating body be created. The originally proposed bill emphasized that reform of intellectual property rights must be complemented with legislation that guarantees the correct functioning of the markets, for which it is necessary to create a regime that nurtures competition in the country.
Cuello says that it is more important now than ever to establish order in the markets. ?Only then will we be able to counteract the anticompetitive proceedings that have already been included in the Central American Free Trade Agreement.? He stressed the hardship poor countries face when they apply intellectual property laws without rules that foster competition, while rich countries do the exact opposite. He said that with the impending ratification of the CAFTA it is an imperative to advance on obtaining approval of the Market Order legislation. The author can be reached at Federico.cuello@excite.com for more information on the bill.