

India vows to sabotage ACTA - CoryOndrejka
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/06/india-vows-to-sabotage-acta.ars

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diego_moita
There's a background story for this: developing countries are very wary of
international trade agreements. Here's why.

In the last decades the WTO created a new open and global economy. But an
often untold story is that the European Union, U.S. and Japan deliberately
left agriculture out of it, purely for internal political reasons
(farmers=votes). Agriculture markets in rich countries are still very fiercely
fenced by protectionism (hight taxes, fat subsidies, restrictive legislation,
etc). For us (I live in Brazil) this is really a big deal because agriculture
is precisely where our main competitive advantages are. We end up being only
customers, not sellers.

The prevailing thinking here is that most trade agreements are a set-up by
rich countries. Until agriculture is fixed in the WTO, our best strategy is to
bomb any trade agreement.

~~~
flashgordon
"The prevailing thinking here is that most trade agreements are a set-up by
rich countries. Until agriculture is fixed in the WTO, our best strategy is to
bomb any trade agreement."

i have to kind of agree with that. I remember the case of Bastmati rice in
India. It has been grown in India for yonks without any patents or any IP.
Suddenly there were companies from the west patenting Basmati (under the name
Kasmati) and trying to prevent indian farmers from growing Bastmati. Ofcourse
it didnt hold for long but was a clear less then for India. Same happend to
the "neem" tree/plant.

Glad to see India stand up against some of the hypocratic regulations imposed
on it.

Disclaimer: I am originally from India.

~~~
moultano
They even patented turmeric <http://www1.american.edu/ted/turmeric.htm>

~~~
Groxx
Well, its use as a medicine. And it was overturned.

But still. Wow. Really makes you trust the effectiveness of the patent office,
don't it?

~~~
noonespecial
Overturned or not, the notion that a big powerful entity with irresistible
weapons can suddenly show up and demand impossible payment for things you've
been doing for 1000's of years based simply on a bit of paper written in a
language unintelligible to you should be terrifying.

It sounds like a science fiction writers dream, however. Sounds like a
fabulous "District 9" sequel. The aliens return not for vengeance, but
royalties!

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forinti
The situation described at the end of the article actually happened last year.
A shipment of generic drugs going from India to Brazil got confiscated in
Amsterdam although they are perfectly legal in both countries.

The point of the matter is that legislation is tied to jurisdiction and some
multinationals would like to be free from this restriction. We seem to have
reached the point in which people believe IP to be a natural and universal
right.

If rich countries push this hard enough, we might see less commerce going
through their ports.

~~~
jimbokun
It would be interesting to see shipping routes set up that deliberately avoid
the large economies supporting ACTA. It could conceivably become a competitive
advantage for "emerging" economies like Brazil, India, Russia, and China
develop their own trade agreements among themselves, and leave the ACTA
countries out. They would probably have more leverage, then, to negotiate
better terms with the ACTA nations.

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jagjit
I think more of such stuff is going to come in coming years. It is just a
manifestation of changing economic profile of the world. I believe something
similar might have happened at climate talks -
[http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-
Wars/2010/05/05/Lea...](http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-
Wars/2010/05/05/Leaked-tapes-reveal-leaders-climate-fight/UPI-40441273090453/)

How it plays out in the long term is anybody's guess. But right now the EU and
US have run very high debts which are only increasing with the deficits. With
not very good immediate economic prospects, the developed world is beginning
to learn to have new folks at the table. When you are neck deep in debt and
those new folks are your creditors, there really is no choice.

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pramit
Fact from Last week's Hindustan times Newspaper: Branded medicine pills sell
for an average of 7X times Genreic medicines.

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jrockway
_But trying to derail the trade agreement, which is nearing completion, could
be difficult for countries not involved in the process._

Nuclear weapons?

~~~
Groxx
What, does ACTA have an oil leak they need to plug?

~~~
jrockway
What I was trying to say was that India could probably derail the treaty if
they really wanted to.

~~~
astine
And get annihilated in the process? I doubt they want it _that_ much.

~~~
CapitalistCartr
The metaphoric 'nuclear weapon' in this case is to deliberately flood the
World with knock-offs of drugs and other products the treaty is whinging
about.

