Bringing domestic approaches internationally is key to global cohesion.

From this, policymakers need to elevate innovation policy on the global stage to a similar level as trade when it comes to debates about how to optimize global economic growth and welfare. Most policymakers, economists, and pundits are well versed in the mantra that free trade boosts global economic welfare. But that same intellectual consensus does not exist when it comes to supporting innovation policies, such as robust intellectual property protections, that are key to maximizing global innovation. And while an increasing number of policymakers realize that innovation is central to economic growth and improved standards of living, many have not connected domestic and global approaches in the same way other policies are assessed from a trade perspective (i.e., as either protectionist or open to trade). This focus on the components that support innovation, especially intellectual property, would be a new lens through which to advance international economic and trade policy.

Policymakers need to elevate innovation policy on the global stage to a similar level as trade when it comes to debates about how to optimize global economic growth and welfare.

The United States and likeminded nations also need to clearly, consistently, and strongly push to reframe the debate around IP back toward a considered and holistic analysis of the international issues wherein intellectual property is a priority agenda item, whether this is in nations’ framing of their economic and trade policies or in the context of issue-specific debates, such as around technology transfer and access to medicines. In some areas, the United States and likeminded countries have shown this to be possible—as with the UN High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines. In other areas, such as with regard to improving intellectual property protection and enforcement in the digital economy, leadership has been wanting. Ultimately, the reactive, defensive, and ad hoc nature of the United States’ and likeminded countries’ current approach is failing to make progress on the broader narrative toward (weaker) intellectual property rights. This essentially cedes the debate to the many vocal and active proponents of weaker intellectual property, and the institutions in which this view has taken hold, allowing them to continue advocating their positions as being in the public interest.