A/HRC/33/40 society, academia, business, media, Governments, parliamentarians and inter-governmental organizations share their knowledge and make recommendations on how to tap the potential for multilateral cooperation and growth and how best to implement the commitments of the Doha Development Agenda. 59. While the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) may allow some policy space to member States, allowing them to exclude from patentability those inventions that, if commercially exploited, might adversely impact human, animal, plant life or the environment, and could potentially be invoked to exclude genetically modified crops,45 the State’s policy space is far from being ensured, and the regulatory chill may still prevent States from adopting precautionary measures. The priority of human rights, health and environmental protection must be spelled out. 60. WTO held its tenth Ministerial Conference from 15 to 19 December 2015 in Nairobi. In a joint press release issued before it, the Special Rapporteurs on the right to food and on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health joined the Independent Expert in urging Governments to deliver on the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and not to betray commitments to address the needs of developing economies. “If trade is to work for human rights and development, it should contribute to the realization of the rights to adequate food, to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and to live in a clean environment.” There is no justification for defaulting on the Agenda: “Human rights obligations must be reaffirmed in the context of global trade rules to ensure that WTO negotiations and rules support development efforts to eliminate the root causes of hunger, ill-health and poverty, strengthen human rights protection and promotion and ultimately ensure that the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals are achieved.”46 61. A majority of States meeting in Nairobi favoured reaffirmation of the Doha framework, yet the opposition of some developed countries blocked consensus. Pressure on developing countries aimed at the introduction of new issues that would undermine the promotion of the right to development were reported. In response to the questionnaire sent by the Independent Expert, Saudi Arabia indicated that: “The WTO top priority should be concluding the DDA issues. The majority of WTO members are developing countries. A successful conclusion of the Doha Round would address developing country needs and contribute significantly to their economic growth and their integration into the global economy. Furthermore, concluding the Doha Development Round would address the trade distortions and imbalances in the WTO various agreements, and preserve the Special [and] Differential Treatment flexibilities granted to the developing countries … The preamble of [the] Marrakesh agreement 47 establishing the WTO explicitly sets the objective to ‘raise standards of living, ensuring full employment and a large and steadily growing volume of real income and effective demand’.” 62. While promoting trade, WTO should place people before profits, and development before the expansion of monopolies. As the Director at the Washington Centre for Economic and Policy Research, Deborah James, observed in 2015: “Despite the global consensus, the rules in the WTO remain unchanged from decades past. WTO rules do not allow developing countries that were not subsidizing in 1994 to subsidize beyond the de minimis … amount allowed to all WTO members. Meanwhile, the United States and Europe are allowed tens of billions a year in overtly trade-distorting subsidies for exported 45 46 47 14 Annex IV. www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16870&LangID=E. www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/04-wto_e.htm. GE.16-11938