CGDTE (Centre for Global Development Through Education)

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Review of 'Behind the scenes at the WTO: the real world of international trade negotiations. By Fatoumata Jawara and Eileen Kwa.' (Pre-published version)
(Oxford University Press, 2004) Downes, Gerard
The investigative work conducted by Fatoumata Jawara and Eileen Kwa in this illuminating book shatters the illusion that the one-member, one-vote system of governance within the World Trade Organization (WTO) makes it the most democratic of all intergovernmental institutions with a global mandate. The authors conducted research and semi-structured interviews with 33 Geneva-based missions to the WTO and with ten WTO Secretariat staff members between February and August 2002. Such detective work forms the basis of the book and gives lie to the claim that the current round of WTO negotiations represents a ‘Development Agenda’.
Review of 'The nation-state in transformation: economic globalisation, institutional mediation and political values, edited by Michael Boss.' (Pre-published version)
(Taylor & Francis [Routledge], 2011) Downes, Gerard
This insightful, hugely diverse, and highly informative volume seeks to adopt a comparative approach principally to Denmark and Ireland, two small states that, prior to the onset of the 2008 global economic crisis, were portrayed as having successfully adapted to the processes of globalisation. The decision by the editor Michael Boss to adopt a comparative approach to the two states is a salutary one, as among the central premises of this volume is the contention that small states, and in particular small Northern European states such as Denmark and Ireland, have traditionally maintained their respective competitiveness by balancing open economies and flexible industrial policies within various forms of social partnership and welfare states. Superficially at least, the two states share strong similarities given howboth are geographically peripheral nations in the north-west of Europe, of similar geographical size and relatively ethnically homogeneous populations,with strong rural traditions. Additionally, both have been historically overshadowed by a more powerful, imperial neighbour.
Review of 'Making global trade work for people by United Nations Development Programme, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Rockefeller Foundation & Wallace Global Fund Earthscan & United Nations Development Programme.' (Pre-published version)
(Oxford University Press, 2004) Downes, Gerard
This review of the multilateral trading system, the culmination of two and a half years of study undertaken by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and its co-sponsors, was published in January 2003, eight months before that system lapsed into paralysis. The report, which argues that trade liberalization must be utilized as a means of fostering human development, reads as a manifesto for the WTO Ministerial Conference which took place in Cancún, Mexico, last September. A week prior to the Cancún Conference, EU trade negotiator Pascal Lamy wrote that the WTO 'helps us move from a Hobbesian world of lawlessness, into a more Kantian world-perhaps not exactly of perpetual peace, but at least one where trade relations are subject to the rule of law'.
The role of trade and the WTO in ensuring food security
(Trócaire, 2010) Downes, Gerard
This article seeks to examine the role of trade and specifically that of the WTO (World Trade Organization) in ensuring, or otherwise, food security and fulfilling one of the Millennium Development Goals’ objectives of halving world hunger by 2015. It highlights the impact of the WTO agreement on trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs) on the domestic regulatory and legislative framework of WTO members. The article also draws attention to the implications that TRIPs may have for future food security and examines briefly the Indian sub-continent where the impact of the food security-related provisions of the agreement have been greatly contested. By following such an approach it may be possible to illuminate the dangers and pitfalls in TRIPs, but also instances where amendments to and flexibilities within TRIPs can be utilised by WTO member states in order to enhance their citizens’ food security.
A critical analysis of North-South educational partnerships in development contexts
(2013) Downes, Gerard
China and India – the new powerhouses of the semi-periphery?
(Palgrave, 2009) Downes, Gerard
This chapter argues that if the South American/ East Asian or state socialist model captured the post-war ‘model’ of the semi-periphery, then the post-cold war states of China and India embody a new ‘globalised’ form. Rather than opting for a version of neo-mercantilism or protectionism, India and China have both based their economic strategies on globalising their economies by attracting multinational investment and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). As a result both states, whilst different in terms of their overall economic output have maintained high economic growth through the emphasis on manufacturing and on facilitating relatively cheap labour for transnational corporations (TNCs). As a result, both countries have become increasingly competitive not just in the global market, but also in organisations such as the WTO, where they have both become important regional players in terms of their influence. However, these moves have also served to merely consolidate their role as being dependent upon western investment and companies whilst both China and India remain severely underdeveloped in terms of their internal institutional development and in terms of living standards and marked inequality.
The pharmaceutical industry and the World Trade Organisation's TRIPs agreement: Intellectual property, global governance and health
(Cork University Press, 2007) Downes, Gerard
The utilisation of agenda-setting power in the multilateral trading system's evolution from 'negative' to 'positive' integration
(Barataria, 2011) Downes, Gerard
This paper contends that the construction of a globalised intellectual property rights regime (TRIPs) within the World Trade Organization (WTO) was emblematic of the shift from ‘negative’ to ‘positive’ integration, which necessitates that WTO Member states harmonise domestic regulations to conform to the precepts of multilateral trading system, and accounts for the relative institutional failure of the organisation since its inception in 1995. The paper examines this shift towards ‘positive’ integration by focussing on the campaign to formulate and construct the globalised intellectual property rights regime within the WTO. By examining the role of agenda-setting power in the creation of TRIPs this article intends to highlight the extent of the symbiosis between private commercial diplomacy and international trade law in campaign construction, and thereby demonstrate how private corporations have been able to formalise their specific interests within the WTO, while further exacerbating those asymmetries which ultimately have led to stasis in multilateral trade regulation.
TRIPs and food security: Implications of the WTO's TRIPS agreement for food security in the developing world (Pre-published version)
(British Food Journal, 2004) Downes, Gerard
This paper serves as a short introductory overview of the World Trade Organisation’s Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement and the extent to which it impinges on food security in the developing world. Looks at the motivation for the TRIPs Agreement, the transformation in agriculture wrought by the “gene revolution” and the consequent rush to patents. The potential impact of the Agreement, namely Article 27.3(b) on the developing world, is then assessed. Claims that a consolidation of the seed industry has led to certain firms enjoying monopoly privileges, whch is at variance with the WTO’s aspiration of greater liberalization of trade. However, the greatest danger to food security in developing countries may come from the implementation of the UPOV Convention, which has been used by powerful states as a means to ensure the compliance of developing countries with the provisions of the TRIPs Agreement.
Implications of TRIPs for food security in the majority world
(Comhlámh, 2003) Downes, Gerard
The TRIPs agreement: A test of the WTO's legitimacy?
(University of Limerick, Department of Politics and Public Administration, 2010) Downes, Gerard
This paper examines the issue of legitimacy in international public law and its application to the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPs). Since the signing of TRIPs in Marrakesh in April 1994 at the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of trade talks, a formidable compliance-implementation gap has curtailed the possibility of implementing an efficacious intellectual property rights regime on a global basis, a scenario which indicates that the deployment of extensive relational and structural power in trade negotiations does not axiomatically produce the desired transformative outcome within the domestic legislative framework of Member states. This paper argues that the principal reason why TRIPs has not been successfully transposed onto the legislative agenda of WTO Member States is because the agreement suffers from a legitimacy deficit which ultimately undermines not only the efficacy of the agreement itself, but also the authority of the WTO as a global governance institution. The paper also aims to demonstrate how legitimacy is a deep-seated aspect of global governance, given that states are unlikely to abide by norms, rules and decisions taken at institutional level unless they are perceived to provide mutual benefits that render them legitimate. In order to assess the legitimacy of TRIPs as an internationally-binding agreement, this paper begins by outlining the basic tenets of legitimacy in global governance and examines the ostensible benefits of adherence to the precepts of global governance for members, namely reciprocal benefits and lower transaction costs. Expanding upon the work undertaken in this area by Daya Shanker (2002), this paper then seeks to apply Peter Drahos’ theory of democratic bargaining among sovereign states onto the negotiating process that led to the appearance of TRIPs within the WTO in order to determine whether the negotiations that led to TRIPs agreement adheres to that theory’s test of legitimacy.

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