Intensive talks to solve disagreement over free trade agreement
Egypt-USA, Economics, 9/30/2005
Intensive talks to solve disagreement over Free Trade Agreement
Intensive talks between Egypt and the USA currently take place as a preliminary step toward concluding a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries.
The talks cover the viewpoints of both parties, especially in regard to the rules of protecting the intellectual property.
The Department of Trade Relations and Inventions’ Patents at the US capital Washington, witnessed discussions on the points of disagreement between the Egyptian and American viewpoints.
Micheal Adeline, the Legal Advisor for Trade Marks and member of the US delegation said that the USA requests Egypt to abide by an additional treaty in the domain of intellectual property "TRIPS PLUS," while Egypt view is to abide by the "Treaty Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights" issued by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
In his meeting with the Egyptian delegation, currently in Washington, Adeline pointed that the American side stressed the necessity of developing the courts and judicial bodies so that the judgment would be written, based on evidences, to be available to the public.
He pointed that the most important points of disagreement lie in the fact that the Egyptian judiciary doesn’t give a decision to destroy the imitated commodities, while the "TRIPS PLUS" provides for their destruction.
Adeline further said that the "TRIPS PLUS" requires that the government would prevent the entry of imitated commodities without regard to any complaint from the owner of the trade mark.
It would also require more government efforts to prevent the digital piracy through imitated CDS, given that such piracy, that spread out through the internet, should be confronted in a firm and resolute manner.
He pointed that it is the nature of abiding by the intellectual property treaties to attract investments, boost economy, and provide protection for the citizens.
It was found out that 7 percent of the World Commodities in circulation are imitated. This results in heavy losses to the World economy, especially in regard to the vital and strategic Commodities such as milk, car Spare parts, medicines, and batteries of cell phones.
The imitated Commodities result also in the increase of organized crime, piracy, and migration of minds to other countries.
He concluded that it’s probable that meetings will be held between Egypt and the USA during November, pointing that according to the latest assessment of intellectual property, Egypt has become on top of the countries which abide by the TRIPS.
