Accession of Korea to the Nagoya Protocol and its Economic Impact Analysis on Korean Bioindustry Companies

Abstract

Analysis of the economic impact on Korean bioindustry companies was approached after Korea access to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity (hereinafter 'the Protocol') enters into force. Cost analysis of the economic impact is based on the size of bioindustry market, dependency ratio on genetic resources abroad, ABS (Access and Benefit Sharing) ratio for royalty ratio. Korean bioindustry companies would have had to pay extra ABS cost around 1.3-6.0 billion won for using genetic resources abroad, if the Protocol had entered into force in 2009. And this cost is estimated to be around 13.6 -63.9 billion won in 2015. All ABS costs account only about less than 0.01% of total Korean bioindustry volume of target years. These show us that joining the Protocol will not significantly impact the bioindustry market in Korea. If the Protocol enters into force, genetic resources users have to pay PIC (Prior Informed Consent) and MAT (Mutually Agreed Terms) cost before accessing the genetic resources outside of their country, regardless of the accession status of the country. This ABS costs and terms on provided genetic resources will be determined by compliance between genetic resources users and providers. As a genetic resources provider, Korean bioindustry companies will have advantage over technology transfer agreements, royalties, licensing agreements, and taxes on profits from patents including traditional knowledge. Also, Korean bioindustry companies are expected to get various socio-economic benefits such as patent litigation and regulatory proceedings as a genetic resources provider. Considering the advantages and disadvantages of the Protocol that Korean bioindustry companies will face together, the socio-economic impact of the Nagoya Protocol on Korean bioindustry companies is negligible regardless of the accession status of Korea to the Nagoya Protocol.