Mike Masnick at Techdirt link here sends us to the New Yorker to read Exporting I.P. by James Surowiecki link here. The article notes that Free Trade Agreements also promote trade restrictions like the one negotiated with South Korea. "Instead, it requires South Korea to rewrite its rules on intellectual property, or I.P. the rules that deal with patents, copyright, and so on. South Korea will now have to adopt the U.S. and E.U. definition of copyright extending it to seventy years after the death of the author. South Korea will also have to change its rules on patents, and may have to change its national-health-care policy of reimbursing patients only for certain drugs. All these changes will give current patent and copyright holders stronger protection for longer. Recent free-trade agreements with Peru and Colombia insisted on much the same terms."

Note Masnick's criticism of the piece for tumbling to the argument that IP is essential to promote innovation.