Peru will not negotiate additional intellectual property concessions with the U.S.

By Francisco Espinosa Reboa, Francisco Espinosa Bellido

The Peruvian Minister of Foreign Commerce and Tourism, Jose Luis Silva, declared that “Peru will not relinquish one centimeter more in intellectual property to the U.S.”. With that grandiloquent phrase, the Peruvian foreign commerce top official tried to send a message that  the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will not represent more concessions on
IP matters than the ones already agreed upon in the Peru- U.S. bilateral free trade agreement,  from some years ago.

This comes after the warnings made by Peruvian pharmaceutical companies that additional concessions in the rights granted to patent owners, such as second use patents, could have a negative impact in the prices of medicines. Peruvian president Ollanta Humala, along with Silva, recently met with U.S. president Barack Obama with regards to the negotiation of the TPP, which would create a commercial block with Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, The United States of America, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

“In the case of the intellectual property matters, which are the most sensitive, Peru has been very clear and emphatic in saying that it will not relinquish one centimeter more of what it has already conceded in the free trade agreement with the U.S. Therefore, we can be calm in that sense”, he added.

According to Silva’s declarations the agenda discussed with Barack Obama is directed towards concluding the TPP negotiations during this year. Intellectual property is one of the topics in which there are still negotiations ahead, while others
have already been concluded.