Negotiating for Switzerland

Learning is a continuing process in one’s life. Some lessons are well archived on our “personal hard disk”, with learning by doing being the most efficient method of saving those lessons. Negotiating the TRIPS Agreement was “unforgettable”, to cite a famous American TV series. Indeed, it is one of the most well-archived and prominent learning experiences of my career. Having been born and grown up in a developing country, namely, Viet Nam (south), with its realities printed in my DNA, I came a long way, eventually working at representing a small developed country. Switzerland, which is characterized by an economy based on free enterprise, innovation and exports of manufactured goods and services, as well as by a compromise-oriented “culture” in terms of policy, law-making and negotiating, set the stage for this learning experience in the field of IP, prior, during and after the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations under the GATT.