The adoption of a Development Agenda in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in October 2007 provides developing countries with a rare and unprecedented opportunity to reshape the international intellectual property system in a way that would better advance their interests. This paper, released on the eve of the 2008 General Assembly of WIPO in Geneva on September 22-30, argues that developing countries can improve their influence in international negotiations around intellectual property by coordinating their efforts and building coalitions. Establishment of such Intellectual Property Coalitions for Development (IPC4D) could reduce the push by the European Community and the United States to ratchet up global intellectual property standards in the face of opposition from many developing countries. If successful, such efforts could enlarge the policy space that these countries need for the development of their intellectual property, trade and public health policies.

The structure of the multilateral trading system is widely assumed to contain bias towards big actors, unevenly distributing access to the key processes of the system. Small countries, including Caribbean states, have long focused their attention on physical merchandise, while the US has taken on the role of disciplinarian, confronting countries that they perceive to be in violation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

Existing nuclear power plants in the United States and Canada have been recovering from the pre-1998 cost overruns, unreliability and safety concerns. The favourable economics of existing plants (after debt has been written down or otherwise managed) have attracted private sector investment in capacity uprates and life extensions. This improved performance, coupled with claimed construction cost reductions for new nuclear power plant designs, has been heralded as evidence of a "Nuclear Renaissance." Estimates comparing the economics of new nuclear plants with alternatives such as natural gas-fired generation spur debate over the accuracy of the data used. It is clear that the economics of nuclear power vary inversely with interest rates and improve as natural gas prices rise and become more volatile. In competitive electricity markets, new nuclear plants may not be financially attractive to private sector investors without government action to tilt the economics in nuclear's favour, at least for FOAK (first-of-a-kind) plants. Some governments are exploring incentives for the construction and operation of new nuclear designs in order to avoid greenhouse gas emissions and enhance energy security. The industry's response to the incentives enacted in the United States will provide fresh evidence about the economics of nuclear power.

CIGI Distinguished Fellow John M. Curtis at the North American Policy Forum.