ABSTRACT Since intellectual property rights (IPRs) and services were introduced to the international trade regime, state regulation on development sensitive issues such as access to education and medicines is directly affected by multilateral and bilateral trade agreements. By adopting a global governance analytical approach to trade politics and a comparative research strategy, the article shows, on the one hand, how national positions on trade in education and IPR have been defined, coordinated and contested in developing contexts and, on the other, the implications of these trade policies on a range of scales. Case studies in Argentina, Peru, Chile and Ecuador will enable us to discuss, on the grounds of extensive primary empirical data, how the apparent conflict between development and liberalization principles is being managed in free trade agreements in Southern countries, and with what outcomes.