§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development in respect of their impact on poorer countries, what assessment her Department has made of the compatibility of Article 27 of TRIPS and Articles 8, 15 and 16 of the UN Convention on Biological Resources. [74844]
§ Clare ShortThe World Trade Organisation Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are complementary. They both seek to establish common international frameworks and obligations within which individual countries may develop legislative regimes appropriate to their circumstances.
There are concerns about the way in which the two instruments can be implemented in a mutually supportive way. Given the interests of developing countries, many of which have indigenous and local communities which depend on local biodiversity for their livelihoods and welfare, we have funded an independent assessment of the implementation issues. This has been published and is being placed in the Library of the House.
Articles 8, 15 and 16 of the CBD refer to the rights of indigenous people, access to genetic material and transfer of technology respectively. Article 27 of the TRIPS agreement deals with the application of intellectual property rights to plant and animal material. Regarding compatibility with Article 8 of the CBD on the rights of indigenous people, patents can protect only new technical contributions. Rights cannot be obtained which cover existing knowledge. Regarding Article 15 of the CBD on access to genetic material, it is for individual contracting States to the CBD to set the conditions for access and it is not a matter for TRIPS or intellectual property regimes. Regarding Article 16 of the CBD, both the CBD and the TRIPs agreement encourage the transfer of technology.