In recent discussions at the 34th session World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP), the United States of America expressed its antipathy to WIPO’s engagement with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The United States expressed their reservations on the SDGs on Wednesday morning, 7 May 2025. For context, it should be noted that in April 2015, WIPO “initiated discussions on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs”.
In its statement, the United States asserted that the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development “advanced a program of soft global governance that is inconsistent with U.S. sovereignty” and that the implementation of the SDGs fell out of the remit of WIPO’s mandate. The United States signalled that “any decisions affecting resource allocation need to be considered and decided by the Program and Budget Committee”. The next meetings of of the WIPO Program and Budget will take place from 19 May 2025 to 23 May 2025. WIPO’s Development Agenda consists of 45 recommendations which address inter alia, technical assistance and capacity building, norm-setting, flexibilities, public policy and public domain, technology transfer, information and communication technologies (ICT) and access to Knowledge, and assessment, evaluation and impact studies. One wonders if the United States’ antipathy to the SDGs is a barometer of how it will engage in WIPO’s broader engagement in the knowledge ecosystem, through decisions taken up at the Program and Budget Committee on the allocation of WIPO resources.
The full statement of the United States is reproduced below.
The United States does not support any proposal unrelated to WIPO’s mandate and intended to advance the implementation of the SDGs. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals advanced a program of soft global governance that is inconsistent with U.S. sovereignty and adverse to the rights and interests of Americans.
The United States does not support this Committee creating KPIs including for WIPO’s implementation of the SDGs. Member States may individually choose to work towards the achievement of the SDGs but it is not WIPO’s responsibility to do so. The United States does not support the inclusion of additional reporting on the SDG-related challenges and lessons learned as part of the progress reports for ongoing projects.
The annual progress reports already contain a section for each project on experience gained and lessons learned. An SDG-related section would be duplicative. The United States also does not support additional reporting for ongoing projects that exceeds the scope of the approved project parameters.
While the United States does not object to WIPO conducting work within its mandate and in alignment with the 2024-2025 approved budget, we do not support the allocation of additional resources for the organization of awareness raising and capacity building initiatives designed to explain to a broader audience the links between IP and the SDGs as any decisions affecting resource allocation need to be considered and decided by the Program and Budget Committee.