Early findings on the economic impacts of intellectual property-related trade agreements

The number of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) that include chapters covering required standards protecting intellectual property rights (IPRs) has increased substantially over the last 25 years. We refer to such accords as intellectual property-related trade agreements, or IPAs. They feature so-called “TRIPS-plus” requirements that go beyond those required by membership in the TRIPS Agreement of the World Trade Organization. We review the development of IPAs over time, in terms of geographical coverage and regulations governing IPRs, employing the World Bank’s database of deep trade agreements. Subsequently, we summarize the limited econometric results available so far regarding how membership in IPAs affects international trade. The evidence suggests that countries in high-standard IPAs tend to export significantly more in certain high-technology sectors, such as biopharmaceuticals, chemicals, and medical devices, that are the target of TRIPS-plus provisions. This result is intriguing but leaves many questions unanswered, opening the field for extensive additional analysis.