The Uruguay Round and International Diffusion of Innovation

The purpose of this chapter is to analyse the implications of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations for the process of international technology transfer and, more generally, of international diffusion of innovation (IDI). Assessing the impact of IDI on countries’ productivity growth and trade performance is, however, a difficult task. Indeed, as with NTBs, IDI typically defies quantitification making estimation of the impact of trade liberalization quite hazardous. Channels and procedures of technology diffusion, not to say innovation diffusion (which includes a lot of micro-organizational and managerial factors), are indeed rather complex and typically hard to measure: they range from purchase of capital equipment to basic and applied research and development scientific publications, patenting and licensing, interfirm cooperative agreements, technical and know-how assistance, on the job training, skilled and semi-skilled labour mobility, education and investment in human capital, diffusion of software and information networks, international trade in professional and financial services, advertising and marketing efforts by sellers of new products and services (this long list is still incomplete).