WTO Tech Transfer Talks Must Include Industry Perspectives, Akin Gump Attorneys Say
World Trade Organization members may lean into further discussions on "lessons learned for tech transfer," though these talks "are likely to quickly turn into whether or not voluntary mechanisms are sufficient and how the governments should step in to correct," three Akin Gump attorneys said in a recent blog post. These discussions will likely include talks on intellectual property, echoing the saga on the Trade Related Intellectual Property (TRIPS) waiver, which will "unhelpfully" reinvigorate whether" IP enables or hinders crisis response.
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The three Akin Gump attorneys -- Stephen Kho, partner; Jan Walter, senior policy advisor; and Brooke Davies, associate -- said that it will be crucial to "inject evidence into these discussions," from the perspective of the pharmaceutical industry, green tech, digital, tech, agriculture and other "innovative industries."
The publication centered its discussion around a push from the African Group, a group of 44 nations at the WTO, for talks and potential renegotiations on how developing countries can acquire technology to build an immunity facing a "polycrisis." The attorneys said the push was emboldened by the TRIPS waiver, which sprang up as a way to share the IP for COVID-19 vaccines. While tech transfer is typically kept in the hands of the private sector, the African Group's efforts "may be the beginning of a longer-term effort to change this traditional separation," the post said.
The African Group submitted a package to WTO members in July on the topic of tech transfer, arguing for the need for "policy space" for industrial development. The submission was a follow-up to a previous paper the group turned in, which said that the current special and differential treatment in the WTO rules for developing nations does not provide enough room for these countries to benefit from tech transfer. The new package suggested that the WTO Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Technology "be the key place" to talk tech transfer, and that "state-led and state-incentivized tech transfers" be on the table.
The group pointed to specific areas where the current rules are insufficient, including on IP, agriculture, climate change mitigation, trade facilitation and e-commerce. The package further said tech transfer talks should be part of WTO reform discussions, existing flexibilities "are not real flexibilities" since they don't benefit developing nations, and that tech transfer is needed to fight multiple crises.