21st May 2008
SUPACHAI TO UNDERTAKE CONSULTATIONS ON GIS
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At an informal heads of delegation meeting on 14 May, WTO Members agreed to a proposal put forward by WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpadki that he would undertake informal consultations on geographical indications (GIs) and in particular on the contentious question of whether the higher level of protection awarded to wines and spirits should be extended to other products (see BRIDGES Weekly, 7 May 2003). Supachai stressed that this way of initiating consultations would be “without prejudice to anyone’s position as to the status of this issue or to the results of my consultations” or “to any delegation’s position on the status of the possible approaches to any other issue”. The issue of GI extensions, which had been raised as one of the ‘outstanding implementation issues’ at WTO Ministerial meeting in Doha, has effectively blocked progress on other implementation issues under Article 12(b) of the Ministerial Declaration. While the implementation issues had been put forward by developing country Members, the GI extension issue has also found strong backing from the EC and Switzerland who have been calling for negotiations on this issue, arguing that the Ministerial Declaration provided “a clear mandate to launch negotiations” on GI extensions (BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 6 December 2001).
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