Journalists’ works to get IPR status
KARACHI: Regulations were under deliberation to protect Pakistani journalists works against plagiarism, Legal advisor of Pakistan Press Council, Majid Bashir said.
“In the near future Pakistani journalists’ works would also be sheltered as Intellectual Property Rights,” Bashir said at an interactive workshop with journalists organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and Actionaid on World Trade Organisation (WTO) issues in Murree recently.
Pakistan has many cultural and traditional aspects that it could register for IPR earnings, Bashir said citing examples of the Western countries. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection leads to technical innovation and transfer of technology where both producers and users benefit from it.
Pakistan ranks fourth amongst the highest IPR violators in the world, which is hindering international companies from investing here. Executive Director of SDPI Abid Suleri said that the World Trade Organisation is only as powerful as its members allow it to be and over its years of functioning, it has become evident that “some members are more equal than others.”
He said that the WTO operates on a ‘one member one vote’ principle but in reality the major trading powers have more influence over decision-making than the smaller nations. Suleri informed that various members of the WTO have adapted the strategy to form groups and alliances within the organization to become powerful and serve as pressure groups. Moreover, most of the developing countries are forced to adopt the WTO-plus agenda due to influence of international finance institutions such as World Bank and International Monetary Fund etc., he added.
Director General of Foreign Trade Institute of Pakistan, Dr. Safdar Sohail gave a presentation on World Trade Organisation and trade policy where he said that Pakistan had a great potential to trade in various sectors, which was not being utilized due to weak policies.
He said that the government should work to revise the tariffs and trade subsidies of both national and international trade and improve on them to make them more business friendly. He said that to make these policies achievable, the government officials themselves need to be honest and dedicated to their work and the media should also lend a hand in creating awareness for both the business community and general public.
Key speakers also discussed various other topics such as Agreement of Agriculture, General Agreement on Trade in Services, Non Agricultural Access Negotiations and Agreement on Textile and Clothing.
Source: The News
Date:2/28/2008
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