Introduction:
Human knew the trade exchange since ancient times, almost no era from the ages is devoid from the exchange of goods and benefits within homogeneous communities, and between them and the other heterogeneous societies. International economic relations affect everyone’s life in one way or another, and are, therefore, some of the most contentious issues in international relations. Economic development is one of the main objectives of every society in the world and economic growth is fundamental to economic development .
The international trading system today incorporates a much broader range of economic activities, issues, rules, and commitments than the pre-1994 regime of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the preferential trade agreements (PTAs, RTAs, FTAs) which were mostly limited to tariff liberalization. Topics such as investment, environmental protection and intellectual property rights, the international dimensions of which were previously handled through sector- or subject-specific agreements and arrangements, have now been brought within the scope of trade policy. As a result, not only goods but also cross-border movements of services, investment, intellectual property, and even people are now included in the overall trade policy agenda. Moreover, what were once considered non-trade issues such as labour practices, environmental standards and even human rights are now also largely treated by major developed trading countries under this heading. Since WTO agreements were based on the principle of a single undertaking, all Member States are obliged to be party to all the agreements which cover a wider set of border as well as domestic policy issues than the GATT.
The early years of twenty first century have witnessed profound changes in international economic environment. The period has been led by the implementation of multilateral Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) under the auspices of World Trade Organisation (WTO) and a sharp growth in the number of regional trading agreements. On one hand, there is liberalization requiring member countries to open up and liberalize their economies by reducing trade barriers and to undertake policy reforms. On the other hand, more and more countries are opting for various sorts of trading agreements that provide preferential access to the member countries and discriminate against non-member countries.
The WTO is a permanent intergovernmental body that deals with the global rules of trade between nations through multilateral agreements. The 1986- 94 Uruguay Round of world trade talks led to the creation of the WTO and its replacement of the GATT. It was decided that the new organization would deal not only with trade in goods, as the old GATT used to, but also with Trade in services, Trade Relation Investment Measures, Trade in Agriculture Goods ,Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property. The main functions of the WTO is to oversee the implementation of the trade agreements adopted by member states, serve as a forum for trade negotiations, handle trade disputes, monitor and review national trade policies.
In order to obtain WTO membership, aspiring countries are willing to go through the prolonged and rigid accession process, and signal their sincerity and compliance by implementing trade liberalization even before accession. In turn, concessions and commitments made during negotiations for entry guarantee trade gains after accession. The impacts of WTO membership and the rigorous accession process are significant not only statistically, but also economically.
Yemen has been declared as a member of the W.T.O on 26th of June 2014. Yemen is required to comply with all agreements issued by the W.T.O, particularly the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights which is called TRIPs Agreement. The present research focuses mainly on this agreement and what new legislations that Yemen should enact to cover all intellectual property rights, what basis Yemen has to prepare and what administrative changes required to improve that will deal and implement TRIPs Agreements Rules.
Generally, exploring the WTO accession issue is wide-ranging and in the present research, the WTO accession question will be examined with regard to the accession of Yemen. It was one of the most difficult accession processes. The focus will basically be on TRIPs agreement.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH:
Joining the World Trade Organization, which is the legal successor for GATT Organization, is no longer an optional matter for the worlds countries, but something which cannot be ignored and a compulsory.
However accessing to the World Trade Organization (WTO) is a complicated matter. This has been the case for countries currently applying for accession and will be for those who are planning to. The reason for this is of a dual, though intrinsic, nature. The organization requests that the applicant country submit relevant legislation on a variety of subjects for its deliberation. The issues under scrutiny have extended beyond traditional trade subjects such as customs law, tariff schedule and related regulations on imports and exports to include items such as laws on joint stock companies, central banks and credit institutions, licensing of economic activities, domestic taxation, patent and copyright protection, etc.
Yemen accession to the WTO becomes a necessity to enable it keep pace with world trade development and thus work on developing its economy and the accession will give Yemen such opportunity. The research traces the phases of Yemen accession focusing on the legal aspects and attempts to serve as a legal guide to the Yemeni legislator showing the utmost need for amending Yemeni laws according to the rules and agreements of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The study, in the researcher's view , is the first to take the issue of Yemen accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) from a legal perspective. Study is also unique because it addresses with more details the agreements of the World Trade Organization (WTO) with special focus on the TRIPS agreement and its impact on the legislative and economic issues of Yemen. Through this research, attempt will be made to identify positive and negative aspects so as to propose solutions by addressing the existing problems. Whilst the perspective of the research is exclusively legal, it reflects the intimate association, between law and issues of economics.
The present research outcome will be highly beneficial for all for e.g. officials, lawyers, economists, political scientists, researchers, investors, and those who are interested to know the legal and economic impact of the accession of Yemen to the WTO , It will also enlighten members of the public who are not specialists in international law but wish to understand the relationship between Yemen and WTO.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH:
Smooth flow of trade and commerce is vital for any economy which is looking for a sustainable level of growth. Blockage of trade in any form will prove to be injurious not only to the progress of the national economies of countries but to the complementary growth of the international trade and development also.
These blockages will create troubles for all the economies whether they are developed or developing. At the same time, these problems are more detrimental to the Least Developed (low income) and Developing (middle income) Countries. This is especially true in the case of economies which are dependent on others for large chunk of their productive means. Hence the accession to WTO are of great importance.
Hence, any country that wishes to accede to the WTO should brace itself for a long and exhaustive process. According to practice, this process would take two years at least, but the period could easily be drawn out to well more than a decade. It took China, for example, fifteen years to finalise its accession. Russia and Algeria have been negotiating theirs since 1993
As such, the accession question, in general, became particularly inciting in the case of this organization. In fact, following its establishment in 1995, the question of accession emerged as one of the various pressing WTO-related issues that attracted attention at different levels, both academic and practical. Even the on-going Doha Round of the multilateral trade negotiations placed it as an item in the Ministerial Declaration that launched the round in 2001.
Generally, exploring the WTO accession issue is wide-ranging. It perhaps can provide an insight to a wider theoretical concern in the field of International Relations (IR) with regard to nation-states ceding part of their authority to international organisations. Specifically, investigating the factors of a desired WTO accession has sometimes prompted scepticism. Sceptics would wonder how an acceding country would come to wish to join this organization when its high demands penetrate domestic boundaries and impose external restrictions
Moreover, the researcher will discuss, the process of accession Yemen to WTO very intensely and its impact TRIPs agreement on IPR law in Yemen.
RESEARCH PROBLEM:
The WTO is a legal system still evolving at global level. With the establishment of the WTO, a new era of trade liberalization has started. Consequently, twenty-eight agreements have been signed aiming at the principal goals of eliminating barriers relating to tariffs, facilitating easy access to markets and creating an international free trade environment. States applying for Membership of the organization must abide by such agreements, as indicated in the final constitution of the organization. Recent accession protocols are based on the concept of universal and uniform liberalization, with little regard to the specificity of the acceding country. Almost all accession protocols impose stringent obligations on new Members. They are required to comply with WTO rules by the time of their accession, and they are also required to undertake substantial trade liberalization.
Yemen applied for accession to the WTO under Article 12 of the Agreement establishing the WTO. To become a Member of the WTO, Yemen had to assume the obligations and commitments stipulated in the WTO Agreement and the Multilateral Trade Agreements annexed there to, including the negotiated schedule of commitments in the goods sector and negotiated schedule of specific commitments in the services sector under the General Agreement on Trade in Services, TRIPS, etc. In other words, joining the WTO requires a Member – country to adjust its economy and laws to the standards and requirements of the organization.
The research argues that because the existing system in Yemen (especially the legal system) is not fully compatible with WTO requirements, some existing laws needed to be amended and new laws needed to be passed in accordance with the TRIPs Agreement and other obligations. Furthermore, new administrative arrangements had to be set up and personnel trained.
Thus the research will attempt to find out all the dimensions of these problems and spotlight on the strategies that Yemen has to apply to fulfill the requirements of the WTO agreements, and also discuss the amendments which the Yemen Legislature will make on the intellectual property rights legislations for the purpose of joining TRIPs Agreement.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1- To examine the World Trade Organization (WTO) showing the main provisions, rules and principles of the multilateral trading system which is administered and supervised by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
2- To study and analyze the economic, trade and legal realities of Yemen.
3- To spotlight on the reasons and motivations of Yemen to seek accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
4- To study the rationale of TRIPS agreement and obligations of Yemen there under.
5- To study various laws before and post Yemen accession to the (WTO) regarding the (IPR).
6- To examine the implications of TRIPS agreement on the regime of Intellectual property rights in Yemen.
7- To know the challenges arising out of implementation of the TRIPS agreement and to suggest appropriate strategies for standing up to those challenges.
Hypotheses.
1- The WTO provides the framework for the conduct of international trade in goods and services and for protection of IPR.
1- The multilateral framework of international trade originated from the GATT is carried a Ned by WTO.
2- The legal fabric of Yemen is far from satisfaction to requirement with stand WTO accession with present state.
3- As part of WTO accession changes were made in the legal regime of IPR in Yemen.
4- TRIPs agreement has brought about radical change in IPR regime in Yemen.
4- Yemen could use the flexibilities in TRIPs agreement to insure that IPR protection stimulate innovation.
5- Wither Yemen accession to WTO and the implication of TRIPs agreement will actually encourage innovation in Yemen.
5- The implementation of TRIPS agreement on Yemen is full of challenges as it has serious repercussions on the existing social, moral, ethical, cultural and legal values in Yemen. The IPR regime under TRIPS is heavily loaded in favour of the developed countries members and creates net economic burden upon the least developing countries.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
The idealized research design is concerned with specifying the optimum research procedure that could be followed where there are no practical restrictions and for any legal research there could be either doctrinal or non-doctrinal method.
The present research is Doctrinal or Non empirical legal research. One of the reasons for doctrinal research is to ascertain a rule for the purpose of shoving a problem and the researcher had made an attempt to analyze Yemen accession to WTO with special emphasis in TRIPs agreement. For this purpose, the researcher had gone through various secondary sources of data. The researcher chooses also to use both Descriptive and analytical methods for carrying out the research work.
Method of Data Collection.
The method of data collection followed under the present research, both primary sources and secondary data have been used in the research. The secondary sources are like Articles, books, Journals and websites, etc. The researcher is going to refer primary sources such as bare act, rules, agreement, reports and WTO cases.
TENTATIVE CHAPTER SCHEME :
To achieve the aims of the research and provide systematic and comprehensive coverage of all relevant issues of the accession of Yemen to the WTO and more particularly to the (TRIPS) agreement , the thesis is planned to be organized into seven chapters, including an introductory overview whereby the researcher introduces the research topic, the significance, the objectives as well as the research methodology, hypotheses, researchable questions, literature review, justification of the research and scope of the research work.
CHAPTER I :
The transformation of the GATT into the WTO was a turning point in the development of international economic law and trade policy. This is because the World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. Essentially, the WTO is a place where member governments go, to try to sort out the trade problems they face with each other. WTO came into effect on 1 January, 1995 with the support of at least 85 founding members. They deal with: agriculture, textiles and clothing, banking, telecommunications, government purchases, industrial standards and product safety, food sanitation regulations, intellectual property, and much more. But a number of simple, fundamental principles run throughout all of these documents. These principles are the foundation of the multilateral trading system. They spell out the principles of liberalization, and the permitted exceptions. They require governments to make their trade policies transparent by notifying the WTO about laws in force and measures adopted, and through regular reports by the secretariat on countries’ trade policies.
The present chapter establishes the context of the research and traces the historical development of the WTO out of GATT. It also discusses the World Trade Organization system as the main channel for integration into the global economy. Thus, this chapter is to explain the legal personality of the WTO and its legal effects. Furthermore, the WTO's goals are discussed in terms of the principles of the world trading system underlying the WTO agreements. In addition, the chapter explains the legal and organizational framework, the political bodies, the Dispute Settlement Understanding, and the decision-making procedures in the WTO.
Chapter one : About WTO
Journey of globalizing trade laws which started with the implication of GATT 1947 has been quite satisfactorily carried ahead by the WTO in the present millennium.
Chapter two: About Yemen economic, trade and law
The legal fabric of Yemen is far from satisfaction to requirement with stand WTO accession with present state .
Chapter three: Yemen accession to WTO , The journey of law
Chapter Four: Trips Agreement Full discussion Yemen contribution
Chapter Five: Implication , complications of Yemen accession to WTO ,TRIPS agreements.
Chapter six : Conditions of similarly situated newly accessed countries to WTO , TRIPS.
Chapter seven: Conclusion and discussion .
INTRODUCTION :
Human knew the trade exchange since ancient times, almost no era from the ages is devoid from the exchange of goods and benefits within homogeneous communities, and between them and the other heterogeneous societies. International economic relations affect everyone’s life in one way or another, and are, therefore, some of the most contentious issues in international relations. Economic development is one of the main objectives of every society in the world and economic growth is fundamental to economic development.
The early years of twenty first century have witnessed profound changes in international economic environment. The period has been led by the implementation of multilateral Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) under the auspices of World Trade Organisation (WTO) and a sharp growth in the number of regional trading agreements. On one hand, there is liberalization requiring member countries to open up and liberalize their economies by reducing trade barriers and to undertake policy reforms. On the other hand, more and more countries are opting for various sorts of trading agreements that provide preferential access to the member countries and discriminate against non-member countries.
The WTO is a permanent intergovernmental body that deals with the global rules of trade between nations through multilateral agreements. The 1986- 94 Uruguay Round of world trade talks led to the creation of the WTO and its replacement of the GATT. It was decided that the new organization would deal not only with trade in goods, as the old GATT used to, but also with Trade in services, Trade Relation Investment Measures, Trade in Agriculture Goods ,Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property. The main functions of the WTO is to oversee the implementation of the trade agreements adopted by member states, serve as a forum for trade negotiations, handle trade disputes, monitor and review national trade policies and the present will some demonstrate these aspects of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
In order to obtain GATT/WTO membership, aspiring countries are willing to go through the prolonged and rigid accession process, and signal their sincerity and compliance by implementing trade liberalization even before accession. In turn, concessions and commitments made during negotiations for entry guarantee trade gains after accession. The impacts of GATT/WTO membership and the rigorous accession process are significant not only statistically, but also economically.
The research seeks to spotlight on the reasons which made Yemen join the WTO, and what are the potential consequences arising from the efforts of Yemen to integrate into the world economy, namely, from her accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and on the reasons and barriers that lead to the expansion of the accession period. The research will also attempt to enhance the Yemeni legislator understanding of the rules and principles of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which will enable them to make the required amendments in the national laws to match and correspond to that of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH:
Smooth flow of trade and commerce is vital for any economy which is looking for a sustainable level of growth. Blockage of trade in any form will prove to be injurious not only to the progress of the national economies of countries but to the complementary growth of the international trade and development also.
These blockages will create troubles for all the economies whether they are developed or developing. At the same time, these problems are more detrimental to the Least Developed (low income) and Developing (middle income) Countries. This is especially true in the case of economies which are dependent on others for large chunk of their productive means. Hence the accession to WTO are of great importance.
Hence, any country that wishes to accede to the WTO should brace itself for a long and exhaustive process. According to practice, this process would take two years at least, but the period could easily be drawn out to well more than a decade. It took China, for example, fifteen years to finalise its accession. Russia and Algeria have been negotiating theirs since 1993
As such, the accession question, in general, became particularly inciting in the case of this organization. In fact, following its establishment in 1995, the question of accession emerged as one of the various pressing WTO-related issues that attracted attention at different levels, both academic and practical. Even the on-going Doha Round of the multilateral trade negotiations placed it as an item in the Ministerial Declaration that launched the round in 2001.
Generally, exploring the WTO accession issue is wide-ranging. It perhaps can provide an insight to a wider theoretical concern in the field of International Relations (IR) with regard to nation-states ceding part of their authority to international organisations. Specifically, investigating the factors of a desired WTO accession has sometimes prompted scepticism. Sceptics would wonder how an acceding country would come to wish to join this organization when its high demands penetrate domestic boundaries and impose external restrictions
Moreover, the researcher will discuss, the process of accession Yemen to WTO very intensely and its impact TRIPs agreement on IPR law in Yemen.