The plan is morally offensive to non-western countries due to its colonialist nature

Piracy is a central theme running through the international discourse on patent rights. The concept was utilized as a rationale for including intellectual property rights within a global trade agreement; in particular, the United States asserted that it was losing millions of dollars a year because of global piracy of copyrighted and patented works.' One major response to these piracy claims was the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), along with the adoption of the landmark Trade-Related Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which established minimum levels of intellectual property standards for all member states. However, these developments did not mark the end of global patent policy disputes or piracy rhetoric. A decade after the creation of the WTO and minimum intellectual property rights, piracy continues to be a compelling theme, but the term is being used by parties with divergent interests. In particular, the United States and European "Western" countries have enacted a series of bilateral and multilateral agreements based upon the premise that higher levels of protection are necessary to combat global piracy. On the other hand, many developing countries have argued that these Western countries engage in their own piracy-"biopiracy"-by taking genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge from biodiverse developing countries without permission, then patenting related inventions, but failing to share any of the resulting commercial profits. The process of obtaining private rights over products derived from third world resources or knowledge that is considered sacred or beyond private ownership is considered to be morally offensive to many citizens of developing countries, as well as those with sympathetic interests in other countries. Moreover, many of these citizens view Western countries and companies with great suspicion since usurpation of resources, harking back to colonial imperialism.