Controversies surrounding pharmaceutical patents and trade rules in the WTO

Pharmaceutical patents, drug prices, and parallel imports of drugs from lower-income to higher-income nations have been at the center of some of the most contentious debates in the run-up to Cancun. This panel will analyze the positions of the various protagonists...

Regulations for international trade in the service sectors (for instance, cross-border transactions by banks, insurance companies, the legal profession, accounting, telecommunications) were first negotiated in the Uruguay Round (1986-1994). At the end of that round, many observers argued that only a skeletal framework had been constructed for services and...