Brazil Ip news
According to the World Trade Organization body, Brazil has made great progress in the implementation of intellectual property rights and has been accorded with ‘flying colors’. It used to be in the bad books just recently. It has increased wealth all around and distributing it in an equitable way.
In the WTO review, intellectual property policies were noted to have achieved some progress. The period of review was from 2004-2007 and it was noted that there were new legislations adopted with clear changes in IP law. Part of the changes was on improved enforcement of obligations under the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) agreement. There was however a need to make further progress.
In 2004, a new National Council to combat piracy and crimes was established. Software piracy was reduced from 64 to 60 and there was also a layout design specification on integrated circuit protection. The US was much relieved at the progress in Brazil and encourages it to join the WTO as a member. There was however a compulsory license issued in 2007 for a HIV/AIDS medication and the importation of a generic version from a third country, which under the TRIPS agreement was allowed as an exception. Another area where the US is of concern is in audiovisual goods, where pirated versions were thriving in Brazil and greater progress was needed. Brazil is a net importer of IP with over 2 billion dollars worth of it in the year 2007.
Is Brazil the next FDI target?
A Brazilian official pointed out that by the end of 2008, Brazil has managed to corner about USD 28 billion dollars worth of foreign direct investments, mostly from the US. This is a 50% increase from the previous year. Of particular interest is that a large number of investments come from venture capitalist. Investment also comes from the credit card issuing sector, as well as those in the education fields. As a result, the Brazilian stock markets have been rising steadily, and it is presently ranked the second most attractive place to invest, behind China. Brazil is a member of the BRIC group of emerging economies and it is obviously considered as the preferred place for US investors as it shares the same time zones as that of the US.
Among the attractive points for investment criterion are the stable government, a good and modern financial system that the west can accept, a good legal system, a strong capital market and the embracing of intellectual property protection system. There is also a large and viable pension fund sector that is allowed to invest in the public sector. There is however a problem with the absence of entrepreneurs with new ideas and hopefully with the infusion of foreign capital, capital funds will be channeled to spark off new media technologies. Presently most new investments fall into either the agro-business sector or the mining sector. The Brazilian government would like to get a piece of action in the emerging information technology sectors, and to this end, has even attracted giants like Google to pump investments in Akwan Technologies, a home grown IT firm. There might be more in the cards in the coming months, as the US is realigning its target to closer home with their unresolved problems with China. And Brazil displacing China as the best FDI market beyond 2012?
June 29, 2009
Is China getting its crown soon?
Among the many surprises about the present economic malaise, one that catches people’s attention is that China recently reported an increase in its 2009 GDP with an expected rate of 8% growth. Compared to other country’s negative growth performance, this is indeed news and quite unbelievable. If an in-depth study is done on China’s economy, it would become apparent that the growth is nothing to be surprised about. Exports had plummeted and FDI has stagnated. So what is causing the increase in GDP? Well, it must be noted that a while back, the Chinese Government had pumped in hundreds of billion of dollars into the economy, triggered to stamp the decline in exports. With some juggling of figures, it was not too difficult to put out a rosy picture. There was a lot of money for lending, and there was a worry that it might trigger inflation and in its course mitigate any real growth.
Still, there was a sector that was worrying to others and that is the robust growth of trading with South American countries. In the midst of other announcements, Brazil said that it will trade more with China, to the tune of $3.2 billion, more than the $2.8 billion that it had with the US. Other South American countries that are reporting increases in China trade include Argentina, Chile, Peru and Cuba. Not surprisingly, many people in America murmured their worries that the Chinese economy will surpass the US within a few years. But is there any foundation that China will attain top world economy status in the near future?
According to Microsoft's founder Bill Gates, it will be decades before China catches up with America's technological supremacy. For a reality check, American inventors obtained about 92,000 patents a year while Chinese inventors are issued only about 1,200 patents! It is also very rare to find leading edge class of inventions from China to say the least. In an extrapolation exercise, Chinese incomes will take about 45 years to be on par with America, assuming that China maintains its annual 9% GDP growth rate. Looking from another angle, American investments in South America reached $340 billion in 2007, compared to $23 billion for China. And China’s investments are mainly on infrastructures. There is therefore no truth in the US loosing its crown yet.
July 20, 2009.
Breaking the patents to save the world!
Brazil and Argentina has put out a strong voice to pharmaceutical firms to lift their patents so that third world countries be allowed to produce the swine flu vaccines to combat the H1N1 pandemic. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and President Cristina Fernandez of Argentina voiced their request at a regional Mercosur leader’s summit in Paraguay recently. Fernandez further adds that putting aside the patent "does not mean disavowing the patents law," as it becomes critical to get enough of the vaccines to poor countries when the flu spreads. This was reported by the state news agency Telam.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is proposing to Latin American leaders to break the patent law to help contain the epidemic, as reported by Brazil's state news agency Agencia Brasil. At the same time, the Brazilian Health minister is negotiating with vaccine producers to ensure that there are enough medications for the asking. Brazil puts a premium on the protection of its citizen’s health, and it has successfully made arrangements in the past with pharmaceutical firms to get affordable HIV medications. Both Brazil and Argentina have highly developed pharmaceutical industries.
27 July 2009.
WTO says Brazil can challenge US on……
In a surprised decision, the World Trade Organization on Monday says Brazil can retaliate with sanctions against the United States in a dispute over US cotton subsidies. Brazil could seek to "suspend concessions or other obligations" on US trade equivalent to up to 147.3 million dollars a year. Brazil had brought the case of US cotton subsidies to WTO in 2002. It had also claimed a compensation of 2.5 billion dollars then. The WTO also says that Brazil could apply the sanctions until the US drops its subsidies, which according to Brazil’s estimates, could amount to 12 billion dollars between 1999 and 2002. According to WTO estimates, the US paid subsidies amounting to 3 billion dollars to its cotton farmers yearly. These subsidies contravene the world multi-lateral trade practices.
The WTO has been unhappy that one of its key member has been breaching international trade practices, and in view of reviving the Doha Round of talks on trade liberalization, had unwillingly endorse the sanction. The big economies have to be seen to toe the line, before the smaller ones can follow. If Brazil were to go ahead and apply sanctions, its ambassador to the WTO, Roberto Azevedo estimated that the amount will likely reach 800 million dollars. In a response to the WTO decision, the US Trade Representative’s spokeswomen, Carol Guthrie, said that the US regretted the decision, but it was “grateful” and “pleased” that Brazil had been denied the amount of cost that it had claimed.
According to Azevedo, some of the sanctions can only be applied to goods while others can, to a limited extent, target intellectual property and services. Brazil is preparing to infringe patents on US pharmaceutical products and to boost its generic drug industries. This is not the first time that WTO has sided Brazil as it had allowed it to apply sanction in 2005. Then, Brazil did not proceed with the sanction because it was worried about souring trade relations with Washington and instead had sought a negotiated settlement. For Brazil, breaking patents of essential but expensive drugs will allowed it much negotiation powers in the supply of life saving drugs, especially critical now in view of the H1N1 influenza pandemic.
September 1, 2009.
Give it now or it will be too late
It is now official and this time it is from researchers in Oxford. An in-depth study by a group of researchers at Oxford says that “rich countries need to pay the full incremental cost of low carbon technology for developing countries to avoid dangerous climate change.” With the Copenhagen climatic change meeting coming up in December, there is a need to meet consensus from the rich countries to foot the bill of negating the ever increasing amount of CO2 emissions. There is also a need to offer new technologies that can at least stabilize the amount of carbon given off by fissile fuel burning, and if they cannot be given away for free, then at least a token cost be effected. And time is running out fast as we can see the effect of climate change reaching an irreversible path with non other than the drastic melting of the polar ice caps. According to Dr Arunabha Ghosh and Dr Kevin Watkins of the research team, to avoid an increase in global temperatures of 2°C, gas emissions will need to be halved by 2050. Most of the gas emissions is projected to happen in the developing countries like China, India and Brazil.
November 19, 2009.
Brazil to curtail US intellectual properties
Brazil, armed with WTO permission to counter strike back at the US subsidy for cotton imports, is reported to have readied a list of Intellectual Property for sanction. Brazil is allowed to impose additional import taxes on US products through the WTO sanction and will select a line of IPs to suspend or restrict its entry which may include software, industrial designs, literary and artistic works, vegetable crops, and integrated circuits. The total monetary amount of sanctions will be 270 million dollars.
February 23, 2010.
Settlement at last by just a whisker
With just a day to go before Brazil was to begin imposing an 830 million dollar trade sanction against the US, a deal was finally reached between the two nations. The long standing contention was the result of illegal US subsidy for US cotton exports which Brazil had complaint about. The WTO had endorsed Brazil’s objection and agreed that it was an unfair trade practice. Under the new agreement, the US will grant concessions that include the modification of an export loan program and the establishment of a temporary assistance fund for the Brazilian cotton industry. Further concessions will be deliberated when Congress meets for the farm bill in 2012.
April 11, 2010.
,br>From US to Brazil
In a head scratching move, the US has agreed to put up a $147 million fund to assist Brazilian cotton farmers. This came about as Brazil was going to institute a $260 million dollar WTO approved intellectual property break against American pharmaceuticals, scheduled to be launch by end of year. Nobody knows how far the tit for tat is going to go and who will eventually win, but there is a strong indication that more trade offs are on the cards, and American taxpayers will be the looser in these subsidy game.
May 12, 2010
What to do with the cows?
Brazil is thinking big as far as its chip making prowess is concerned. In an enlightened moment, Mr Sergio Rezende, who is the Brazilian Science and Technology Minister said all cows in the country will be tagged with a computer chip. There are an estimated two million herds of cows in the country, and if the plan becomes reality, it would be able to help the chip manufacturing sector in the country. Although Brazil has the fifth largest computer industry in the world, it has not been able to draw in investment in the sector. Home grown industry is very lacking at the moment. Here is however a large PC market in South America and Brazil has to seize the opportunity to be the major player of PCs in the region.
May 21, 2010.
Brazil wins on generics
In a sort of victory for generic drug makers, the WTO has passed a resolution to separate the question of trademarks and patents and the falsification of drugs. Brazil, together with India, South American and African countries had petitioned the WTO because of the West’s constant confiscation of drug shipments at ports for counterfeiting. With the resolution, a watch dog committee consisting of WTO officials will keep an eye on counterfeits that are giving genuine generics a bad name. There has been a rise in the use of generics, and fearing that generics will sweep away patented drugs from the market, western countries were in arm trying to kill off their competitors by way of confiscation of generics at European ports.
June 3, 2010
Brazil sees red at US Senate vote
The U.S. House of Representatives this week voted to suspend $147 million in annual payments to a Brazilian cotton fund, arguing the money for Brazil was also an unproductive and costly subsidy. The U.S was forced to pay Brazil $829 million as a means of compensation for illegal subsidy to American cotton growers. The sanction was authorized by WTO after Brazil brought its case to the world trade body. Brazil suffered because its cotton could not compete in the US market due to lower prices. Brazil on the other end is bracing for retaliatory act against the US. Brazil has indicated that if the payment from the US were to stop, it will, among other things, take steps against imports from the U.S., including against intellectual properties. Still, the bill has to be debated and voted in US Senate, and its outcome cannot be certain. Meanwhile, the US Senate has already voted to repeal tariff of 54 cents a gallon on imported Brazilian ethanol. That will make Brazil see red though.
June 17, 2011