ABSTRACT
The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS Agreement”) was concluded after seven years of Uruguay Round negotiations, several years of negotiations leading up to the Uruguay Round mandate, and earlier discussions of an anti-counterfeiting code tracing back to the Tokyo Round negotiations. As one of the principal multilateral trade agreements of the World Trade Organisation, the TRIPS Agreement plays a new and important role in the international economic system. It was certainly recognized during the Uruguay Round TRIPS negotiations that the proposed agreement would have an impact on the interests of developing countries. The developing countries initially resisted negotiation of the TRIPS Agreement because they foresaw this economically undesirable outcome. There is every indication among the present generation of international economic specialists that a strong interest persists in promoting human rights as a core goal of the international economic system.
