TRIPS-plus through the backdoor
GRAIN
in cooperation with SANFEC
July 2001
Bilateral agreements are a powerful but hidden tool to achieve uniform market conditions for transnational corporations in developing countries. Silently hammered out between individual governments, they offer a direct means to cut deals over market access privileges, foreign investment, research funding or anchor-free profits. What’s more, they’re booming. The policies and procedures of multilateral institutions such as the World Trade Organisation or the International Monetary Fund are seen the world over as reason to riot. But the quietly crafted mini-pacts between Washington and Amman, or Brussels and Dhaka, are where more damage is sometimes being done. And patents on life have a central place on the agenda.
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