Special and Differential Treatments provisions in the TRIPs negotiations

Legal context: This article reviews the current status of World Trade Organization(WTO) negotiations on Special and Differential Treatments (S&DT)of developing countries in TRIPs, referred to here as the agreementon compulsory licensing. Key points: The main thrust of the article is that, although the negotiationshave reached equilibrium, there are still some open questionswhich may prove problematic in the future. Practical significance: The most important remaining question to be borne in mind bypractitioners is how the results reached might be incorporatedin TRIPs and made permanent, this impacting future pratice.