Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 4 • Number 23 • 20th December 2004

Consultations on Geographical Indications Get Underway

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At the first meeting of technical consultations under the WTO July Framework (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 6 August 2004), Members on 16 December considered on how to proceed in discussions on whether or not to extent the additional protection for geographical indications (GI) currently accorded to wines and spirits under the Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to other products. Most of the meeting’s discussions circled around traditional arguments on whether or not to extent GI protection (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 6 December 2001). Members also differed over whether future discussions should focus only on GI extensions, as suggested by advocates of extension such as Switzerland, the EU and Bulgaria, or should be broadened, as proposed by the opponents of extension, such as Australia, to also include other GI-related issues, such as the Multilateral Register for GIs currently being negotiated in the TRIPS Council and the issue of “clawback”, i.e. the EU’s proposal to reclaim terms used in other countries which has been submitted as a market access issue in the agriculture negotiations. The Chair of the meeting, WTO Deputy Director-General Mr Thompson-Flôres, will prepare a list of topics to be covered by the following informal meetings, based on suggestions by Members.

The issue of GI extensions, which had been raised as one of the ‘outstanding implementation issues’ at WTO Ministerial meeting in Doha in 2001, 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

The next consultations will take place in February and March 2005. For further information on GIs, see BRIDGES Monthly, September 2004.

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