TITLE: FTA would hurt Thais, expert warns AUTHOR: Porpot Changyawa PUBLICATION: Bangkok Post DATE: 19 August 2003 URL: http://www.bangkokpost.com/190803_News/19Aug2003_news25.htm l Bangkok Post | 19 August 2003 FTA WOULD HURT THAIS, EXPERT WARNS US LAWS ON PATENTS, COPYRIGHT ENFORCED Porpot Changyawa A free trade agreement with the United States would lead to a broader application of intellectual property rights that could hurt Thais -- from farmers to internet users -- an expert has warned. Jakkrit Kuanpot, an intellectual property rights expert from Sukhothai Dhammadhiraj University, said a Thai-US free trade area (FTA) agreement would have an even more severe impact than the World Trade Organisation's Treaty on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Farmers could be forced to pay for growing patented plant varieties and internet users to pay for browsing the net, he said. Thailand and the US are set to begin discussions on an FTA agreement during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting (APEC) in Bangkok in October. In exchange for special trade privileges under the FTA, Thailand would have to provide special protection for US intellectual property rights, Mr Jakkrit said. The agreement would allow signatory countries to grant special privileges to each other, a provision that is prohibited by the WTO which requires that any special privilege granted to a member country must be granted to all. The US earlier signed similar agreements with Singapore in May and with Chile in July. The pacts are believed to have become a template for the Thai-US FTA agreement. Under the agreement, Chile is required to patent all plant varieties within four years. The extended patenting regulation would cover plant tissues and genes, leaving no room for local farmers to develop their own strains. "If the condition is included in the Thai-US agreement, all plant varieties would be patented and farmers would be charged for growing these patented plants,' Mr Jakkrit said. Thailand's current Plant Varieties Protection Act has slowly added new strains to the list, so farmers could develop their own common varieties without having to rely entirely on patented seeds. Thai laws may need to be amended to support the agreement. Mr Jakkrit said the provision on bio-resources had been targeted at biodiversity-rich countries. A similar provision was not in the US-Singapore pact. The US planned to sign agreements with 34 developing countries in the western hemisphere, the so-called Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, and they were expected to carry a similar provision. The agreement would also call for stricter application of intellectual property rights on trademarks, internet domain names, copyright, digital rights management and satellite signals. The US had tried to impose its domestic laws on copyrights on internet materials, Mr Jakkrit warned. Internet users could be asked to pay for browsing or using materials on the net since they had been "copied' onto each user's computer. "This would hamper the freedom of internet users,' Mr Jakkrit said. Apart from intellectual property rights, the US reportedly also demanded the Thai-US bilateral deal cover investment and services. Thai officials were confident existing laws and measures would safeguard national interests if the service sector was open to US companies. © The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. _ GOING FURTHER (compiled by GRAIN) Agence France-Presse, "Bush to push free trade initiative in Southeast Asia", Manila, 6 August 2003. http://asia.news.yahoo.com/030806/afp/030806080736eco.html GRAIN, "Bilateral & regional agreements imposing TRIPS-plus standards for IPRs on life in developing countries", update of August 2003. http://www.grain.org/docs/trips-plus-table-en.pdf