"The TRIPS agreement runs counter to the neo-liberal arguments in favour of competition." Is this a fair assessment? Justify your answer giving reasons.

TRIPs relate to trade related intellectual property rights (IPRs). The history of IPRs goes back to the Paris Convention for Protection of Industrial Property, 1883. References of IPRs were present in the GATT, 1947. The main features of TRIPs agreement are: (i) Minimum standards of Protection to be provided by each member (ii) Domestic Procedures and remedies for the enforcement of IPRs (iii) Dispute settlement between the WTO members Yes, this is a fair assessment because the issue of harmonization of national and regional patent laws has been a contentious one for many decades, primarily because of the differing interests and priorities of developed and developing nations. While the former set of nations have consistently argued for several decades that national patent laws need to be harmonized, which in other words implies that there should be a 'one size fits all' International Patent System; the latter set of nations argue that the International Patent System should have adequate flexibility so as to enable developing countries to adopt patent laws suited to their development needs. This shows that the TRIPs agreement runs against the tide of neo-liberal competition. But while the WTO has been looking for ways to resolve the widely differing perceptions of its members over the framework for patent protection that must be accepted, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has been engaged in a parallel process of negotiations for harmonization of [patent laws in order to develop an International Patent System. This, however, is still to be finally concluded.