Has the Least developed countries' TRIPS Waiver Delivered on its Promise of Creating a Viable Technological Base?

The Trade-Related Intellectual Property (TRIPS) Agreement of the World Trade Organization has granted major flexibilities to least developed countries (LDCs). One of these flexibilities is the exemption from the implementation of the majority of the provisions of this Agreement over a certain period (referred to as "TRIPS Waiver"), so as to help LDCs create a viable technological base. The present article has investigated whether the TRIPS Waiver was instrumental in expanding LDCs' technological base measured by their total factor productivity level. The analysis has used 14 LDCs (based on available data) and two different control groups, over the period from 1981 to 2020. It has revealed that the TRIPS Waiver helped LDCs expand their technological base, in particular for LDCs that had very weak technological bases. In addition, this positive technological base effect of the TRIPS Waiver was larger in LDCs that implemented weaker intellectual property laws, as well as those that endeavour to relatively diversify their export products, and improve the quality of export products in a context of a greater export product diversification.