ABSTRACT
Developing countries were primarily interested in getting better deals on agriculture and textiles and showed little interest in the 'new themes' General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) agenda being pushed by the US. By the mid-1980s US private sector disillusionment with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) secretariat and WIPO as a forum for getting things done on intellectual property was running high. The Quadrilateral Group (Quad) consisted of the US, the European Community, Japan and Canada. Once these countries had achieved a consensus on an agenda for a multilateral trade round the round would most likely begin. The US delegation that travelled to Punta del Este in September 1986 to attend the Ministerial Conference was accompanied by advisers from the intellectual property committee (IPC). The IPC, in its description of Punta del Este, described the Ministerial Declaration as 'including a strong negotiating mandate for intellectual property in the new round'.
