WTO TRIPs Agreement and its Implication on Policy Space of Public Health in Developing Nations

Developing nations often find it difficult to initiate a significant input when it comes to gaining comparative advantage based on the state of their economy and public policy framework that influence the capacity to access the international market. The World Trade Organization through consensus of member states has undertaken several states towards ensuring fair competition among developing nations by adopting the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property. The paper will take an in-depth analysis of the impact of WTO TRIPs agreement on how developing nations have featured in developing public health policy guidelines to align to the provisions of the agreement and attain competitiveness. The analysis will undertake to establish scholarly input and review the capacity of Bangladesh trade policies regime to enhance the competitiveness together with the development of the public health sector.

The public health industry is an important component of society that should strike a balance between ensuring the quality of the products as well as ensure countries have sustainable resource endowment to ensure the growth of the sector. The World Health Organization report in 2017 presented findings on the statistics of people across the world unable to access quality healthcare and pegs the challenges to lack of access to basic medicine a situation in need of policy restructuring to cure. The limited freedom and latitude for less developed nations like Bangladesh to exploit their resource endowment further and initiate progressive industrial policies in response to underlying health needs to support human life. The significance of Research Scope According to Azam & Richardson (2010), there is an unending debate on the impact of pharmaceuticals patent protection on the capacity of less developed countries to afford the administration of quality health care.

The disparities witnessed between developed, developing and less developed countries underpin the reasons behind the difficulties of Bangladesh and other member states with the limited economic power to effectively implement the WTO TRIPs agreements. The dilemma of Bangladesh has been how to maneuver between the benefit of accessing quality pharmaceuticals by implementing patent protection policies to attract foreign research as opposed to generic pharmaceuticals that are affordable (Subhan, 2006, p. Secondly, the second generation under review is the competing interest that requires countries to fine tune their legislative regime in conformity with the agreements of international trade body despite the diverse national orientation. Chorev & Shadlen (2015) in there scholarly analysis demonstrates significant insight into the overarching objectives of developing the nation's failure to align with the international trade guideline on TRIPs.

An analysis of the capacity of countries to reflect the aspirations of the TRIPs pact identifies specific issues which illuminate the challenge of social, economic and political challenges to support conformity to such international obligations on trade. The political systems in developing countries that operate under distinct governance structures fail to attain consensus on certain clauses of the international agreement hence drawing sharp divisions in the desire to comply (Shadlen, 2005, p. The economic and social orientation of developing nations fails to provide the capital that will support such measures especially on a sensitive matter of public health where stakes are high to aid human survival together with quality healthcare. The international agreements such as WTO TRIPS seek to bridge the gap between countries and assert sanity in the international trading environment but their input works against the capacity of countries to grow (Dutfield, Bellmann, & Melndez-Ortiz, 2003, p 11).

The WTO faces a substantive indictment on the selective application of the international obligations especially when it comes to uptake of the regulations by developing countries while developed countries operate outside the regime with impunity. For instance, WTO has often advocated against the use of industrial policy by developing nations to enhance their domestic needs and international competitiveness while developed nations in the post-2008 financial crisis utilize industrial policies (Chang, 2011, p. The selective uptake of the regulations raises the concern of possible asymmetries in the implementation of the agreements. The asymmetries power has equally raised critical doubts about the governance of the WTO dispute regulation mechanism which impede the belief among member states of the organization allegiance to the core objectives of its formation (Drahos, 1995, p.

For instance, the WTO TRIPs agreement that links Intellectual Property protectionist regime to the pricing mechanism of medicine hence suffocating the supply in areas where the economy cannot afford to deny people a very important commodity for survival (Cohen, Gyansa-Lutterodt, Torpey, Esmail, & Kurokawa, 2005, p. The international policies are counterproductive to developing nations since they continuously push developing nations to poverty and suffering despite the promise to attain fairness through their policy formulation guideline (Subhan, 2006, p. In pursuit of improved and patient-centered healthcare outcomes, one of the many practical difficulties that governments, particularly in low-income economies, an encounter is improving access to affordable medicines (Chorev & Shadlen 2015, p. The high prices charged on medicines contributes significantly to limiting access hence deprive humanity of a commodity in the heart of their survival.

The policies fail to respond to an ethical concern of what would be the overarching objective of such an agreement if it fails to protect the interests of humanity, especially while infringing on a basic human right to access quality medical care. TRIPs provisions require WTO-members to endorse patent protection in pharmaceuticals. Moreover, it is imperative to underscore the difficulty of successfully responding to the need to enhance public health on one hand and equally attract quality through assuring protection of intellectual property. The postponement of the global patent regime to allow the supply of therapeutic drugs, an unprecedented shift, has triggered extensive concern and interest over its impact on access to affordable drugs, especially in resource-poor developing economies the challenges of implementation are evident from the perspective of less developed nations such as Bangladesh making it imperative for countries to re-engineer their legislative frameworks (Azam, 2018, p.

Countries should seek to focus on innovation together with exploring flexibilities that exist in their domestic policy framework to factor in legislation in support of innovation to balance the interests of supply and protection of intellectual property without a rippling effect of increased prices (Van Wijk, & Junne, 1993, p. Innovation worked in India and has attained a progressive enhancement of the capacity to bridge the supply gap of medicine hence making it affordable and able to respond to health needs of the country. Chang, H. J. Policy space in historical perspective with special reference to trade and industrial policies.  Economic and Political Weekly, 627-633. Chang, H. , Gyansa-Lutterodt, M. , Torpey, K. , Esmail, L. C. , & Kurokawa, G. Bellmann, Ch. Dutfield, G. and Meléndez-Ortiz, R.