infoJustice

Europolitics reports that European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht will travel to Canada next week “in the hope of concluding trade talks with the two countries before the EU’s 27 heads of state and government meet in Brussels.”

However, Canadian Trade Minister Ed Fast recently told the Globe and Mail that he was more conerned with negotiating a quality agreement, and that “our guide for finalizing any agreement will be the quality of its content, not any calendar date.”

A number of issues remain to be negotiated, including controversial IPR provisions. Documents leaked last November show the EU’s remaining negotiating objectives for intellectual property and pharmaceuticals.  Demands for patent extensions and data exclusivity are somewhat similar to the demands for these provisions by the U.S. in the TPP, though Europe seeks a longer period of data exclusivity than the U.S. has sought to date in other trade agreements.

3. On pharmaceutical patents we have three requests for Canada:

(1)  Introduction of Supplementary protection certificates (SPC), also known as Patent Term Restoration (PTR).

(2)  Extension of the period of data exclusivity: The EU has requested 8+2 years to create a level playing field with its own regime. Canada’s current legislation foresees 6+2 years, but Canada is reluctant to consolidate this timeframe and only wants to commit 5+1 years, which is the minimum WTO standard.

(3)  Introduction of a right of appeal under Canada’s marketing authorization regime.

(Note that the idea that WTO requires 5+1 years of data exclusivity is simply wrong.  The TRIPS agreement doesn’t require data exclusivity; rather it requires the protection of test data “against unfair commercial use.”  A good explanation from UNCTAD/ICTSD TRIPS Resource Book is here.)

Internet advocates (and others) have raised alarm that the investor-state dispute provisions will allow IP owners to directly sue countries. For instance, Ante Wessells writes in the FFII blog that “The arbitration clause will have a negative impact on innovation and the Internet. The trade agreement with Canada will allow multinational companies to attack legislative reforms and protect old business models. This endangers reform of copyright and patent law. The Internet suffers from an excessive enforcement of an outdated copyright. Filtering, blocking and banning links hamper the functioning of the Internet. CETA will give multinationals the possibility to thwart necessary reforms.”