Chamber of Commerce calls for stronger IP under NAFTA
The US Chamber of Commerce, a federation representing more than three million businesses, has called for stronger IP provisions in the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
US President Donald Trump triggered the renegotiation of NAFTA, a trade deal with Canada and Mexico, in May.
In a submission to the US Trade Representative’s Office (USTR), the Chamber said that it supported the effort to modernise NAFTA, “taking into account technological, economic, and other changes in the US, North American and global economies in recent years”.
However, the federation warned that the negotiations should be conducted in a manner that does not put millions of American jobs at risk.
Approximately 14 million US jobs depend on trade with Canada and Mexico, and the daily volume of trade between the US and its two North American neighbours tops $3.5 billion, according to the Chamber.
On IP, the Chamber claimed that the renegotiation is an “opportunity to realise a vision of North America as the global innovation engine”.
In 1994, when NAFTA came into effect, the trade deal took “valuable steps to advance IP disciplines” throughout North America, explained the federation, but since then, “progressively stronger IP provisions have been secured in US trade agreements”.
“Gaps in both the scope and implementation of NAFTA disadvantage American industry and US workers in their own region,” it claimed.
According to the federation, ensuring the full implementation of existing NAFTA rules and upgrading Canadian and Mexican IP laws would benefit all three countries.
“In turn, Canada and Mexico would be better able to enjoy the benefits of the research and development investments and creative work taking place in their own markets, which due to a weak IP environment too often are lost to foreign competitors,” said the submission.
The USTR released its “2017 Special 301 Report” in May this year, claiming that Canadian and Mexican IP laws and enforcement do not fully protect US interests.
Countries such as Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan don’t provide “adequate or effective” border enforcement against counterfeit and pirated goods, according to the report.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has also submitted a comment to the USTR, arguing that IP provisions should not be included in the trade deal.
“Prescriptive IP rules usually fail to account for developments in technology such as the internet, or changes in business and social practices such as the sharing economy. Including such rules in trade agreements could inhibit the US from modernising its own intellectual property rules in the future,” said the EFF.
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