{"id":19957,"date":"2014-01-16T16:12:23","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T21:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=19957"},"modified":"2014-01-16T16:58:30","modified_gmt":"2014-01-16T21:58:30","slug":"expert-free-trade-negotiations-offer-opportunity-to-improve-international-intellectual-property-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/19957\/expert-free-trade-negotiations-offer-opportunity-to-improve-international-intellectual-property-protections\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Trade Negotiations Offer Opportunity to Improve Intellectual Property Protections"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our Liberty Update this week, we highlight<\/a> the new 2014 Index of Economic Freedom<\/a>, which itself highlights the critical importance of property rights and free trade in generating prosperity.\u00a0 The facts, and that correlation, are simply beyond dispute.<\/p>\n

On that note, current Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade agreement negotiations provide a critical opportunity to upgrade intellectual property (IP) protections that have gradually become outdated since the landmark North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed two decades ago.\u00a0 That was the expert conclusion of Mark T. Elliot, Executive Vice President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center, in testimony this week before the House of Representatives at a hearing<\/a> entitled “NAFTA at Twenty:\u00a0 Accomplishments, Challenges, and the Way Forward.”<\/p>\n

At the time of signing, NAFTA intended to create the best levels of IP protection and enforcement…\u00a0 It was a testament to how important IP was viewed by Mexico, Canada, and the United States.\u00a0 However, as this was signed twenty years ago, this level of IP protection is now a very low bar in 2014.\u00a0 In 2012, the Chamber released an International IP Index, a comprehensive review of the intellectual property environment in 11 key markets based on existing international standards and best practices.\u00a0 The United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia all perform well in the Index\u2026\u00a0 Mexico and Canada, however, rank closer to the likes of Russia, Malaysia, and China.<\/p>\n

In Mexico, however, we continue to see progress\u2026 and the business community has been working productively with the Mexican government.\u00a0 In contrast, Canada\u2019s relative low score is a result of wide-ranging IP problems including:\u00a0 enforcement, weak on membership and poor ratification of international treaties, and significant problems with patent and copyright laws.\u00a0 Canada is the largest trading partner for the United States\u2026 [making] it all the more bewildering to the business community at how substandard Canada\u2019s IP system is.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When NAFTA was signed, it was an idea ahead of its time.\u00a0 And as former Clinton Administration Chief of Staff Thomas “Mack” McLarty noted a recent Wall Street Journal<\/em> commentary<\/a>, the results have been spectacular:<\/p>\n

U.S. trade with Mexico and Canada has tripled to more than $1 trillion a year, supporting millions of American jobs.\u00a0 The U.S. exported more last year to Mexico than to Brazil, Russia, India and China combined; and more to Canada, with 35 million people, than to the European Union, with 500 million…\u00a0 NAFTA also opened the door for free trade agreements across Latin America, a catalyst for economic and political reforms.\u00a0 Mexico was transformed from one of the most closed economies in the world to one of the most open, and it subsequently threw off decades of one-party rule. \u00a0 Today, U.S. products make up 40% of the contents of goods imported here from Mexico (compared with 4% in goods imported from China).\u00a0 An integrated market boosts exports and imports, and helps keep good jobs at home.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today, we face a perfect opportunity to improve upon NAFTA’s good thing.\u00a0\u00a0 As Mr. Elliot testified:<\/p>\n

2014 will present many opportunities for the United States, Canada, and Mexico to further improve their IP environments…\u00a0 In particular, all three countries are participants in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement negotiations.\u00a0 The TPP is being negotiated between 12 different countries, and it is essential that it include robust standards for IP protection, using the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement as a model and providing 12 years of regulatory data protection for biologic products.\u00a0 We encourage the U.S., Canadian, Mexican, and all TPP negotiators to uphold their positions and protect IP from the efforts to weaken existing laws and norms.\u00a0 The TPP provides the U.S., Canada, and Mexico the opportunity to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in support of strong IP protections, innovation, and access to the creations and inventions of the 21st century.\u00a0 A TPP agreement that includes a high-standard IP chapter is good for jobs and good for international trade.\u00a0 The TPP will also allow Canada to raise its IP standards, promote innovation, and bolster its growing economy.\u00a0 2014 should be the year when the North American neighbors work together to improve each other\u2019s IP environments and the IP environments of countries around the world.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Free trade and strong IP rights are critical components of economic freedom, which the latest Index of Economic Freedom shows is causally related to a nation’s prosperity.\u00a0 America, Canada, Mexico and the other negotiating nations face an important opportunity in 2014 to improve upon both, which will boost our prosperity at a time when we desperately need it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In our Liberty Update this week, we highlight the new 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, which itself highlights the critical importance of property rights and free trade in generating prosperity.\u00a0 The facts, and that correlation, are simply beyond dispute. On that note, current Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade agreement negotiations provide a critical opportunity to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[154,2871,2872],"class_list":["post-19957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-free-trade","tag-intellectual-property","tag-ip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19957"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19965,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19957\/revisions\/19965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}