José Estanislau do Amaral, Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the WTO, considered it as still a very early proposal, since no draft agreement or definitions were included, making it difficult to comment on in detail. In general terms, he considered that the proposal deals in fact not only with the supply of global public goods, but also with their access, two issues which should be treated separately. Furthermore, he considered that the WTO might not have the experience in dealing with the supply side of economics, since no agreement of this nature currently exists under the organization’s mandate. He also stressed that this is one initiative among many others, and that sectoral efforts such as under WIPO have to be taken into account. He considered it a proposal absolutely worth pursuing, which will need refinement before further discussion can take place.
Shandana Gulzar Khan, Legal Affairs Officer at the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the WTO, noted how the proposal was very much in line with the topics of this year’s Public Forum, in the sense of the challenges to the multilateral trading system. She looked into several of the instruments covered by the WTO, finding not directly an inbuilt mandate for the proposal, but enough references and key words that cobbled together could be used to further its pursuit. The best time to do so would certainly be post-Doha, and at a moment when the confidence of the membership could be brought to this new idea.
Antony Taubman, Director of the Intellectual Property Division of the WTO, noted how stimulating the proposal is. He shared the view that global public goods are indeed under-supplied. As to the proposal as such, he underlined the complexity of defining knowledge as a public good, the several layers of meaning it may have and the value attached to it, as well as the necessary distinction with public domain. Also, he pointed at the need to carefully consider how to balance individual contributions to and benefits taken from the system, which could be possibly addressed by standardized contributions.
Supply of Knowledge as a Public Good: A WTO Agreement Proposed
Special Correspondent - 2011-09-22 19:42
James Love, Director of Knowledge Ecology International, started a session in WTO public forum by noting that global public goods are generally undersupplied because of sovereignty and free-rider issues, and that this is especially so in the case of knowledge. Although the private sector has been active in supplying knowledge in some cases, such as Wikipedia and Creative Commons, this effort is insufficient. He suggested that such an agreement under the WTO could operate with standardized and sui generis offers, depending on the area concerned.