Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 6 • Number 19 • 22nd May 2002

TRIPS Council Sets Agenda For June Meeting

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In what was described as a largely procedural meeting, the 17 May informal meeting of the WTO Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) discussed the agenda for the upcoming TRIPs Council meeting on 25-27 June and the special (negotiating) session on 28 June. During this latter special session, Members will continue their negotiations on the establishment of a multilateral system of notification and registration of geographical indications for wines and spirits (see BRIDGES Weekly, 12 March 2002). Health discussion focuses on LDC extension In the context of health, Members discussed the extension for least- developed countries (LDCs) granted in para. 7 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPs Agreement and Public Health, which allows LDCs to delay patent protection for pharmaceuticals until at least 2016. During the meeting, the issue arose whether the extension also exempted LDCs to implement the "mail box" provisions of the TRIPs Agreement, which require Members to provide means for inventors to submit patent applications and exclusive marketing rights for approved products while patent protection is not implemented. LDCs argued that the Doha Declaration also exempted them from these obligations, while several developed countries, including the US, disagreed. Members requested the Secretariat to compile background information on this issue. Delegates also touched on para. 6 of the Doha Declaration, which had deeply divided the TRIPS Council at its last meeting , but did not enter into substantial discussions. Switzerland asked the Secretariat to compile information on the extent of patent protection and production capacity. The issue will be taken up again at the June TRIPs Council meeting. According to one trade source, developing countries are currently working on a proposal on this issue. Para. 6 instructs Member to find an "expeditious solution" to the problem that Members with insufficient or no manufacturing capacities in the pharmaceutical sector could face in making effective use of compulsory licensing. Observership issue remains unresolved While Members agreed to grant ad hoc observer status to three organisations — including the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization, L’Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle, and the Gulf Cooperation Council — the US continued to oppose granting observer status to the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), arguing that the CBD did not have a broad interest in TRIPs issues. The EU, Peru, Brazil and India, however, pointed out that the CBD Secretariat should be an observer given that the Doha mandate explicitly instructs the TRIPs Council to look at the relationship between TRIPs and CBD. Chile and Hungary called for a practical solution, suggesting that the CBD Secretariat could be an "invitee" rather than an observer. Regarding observer status in the special (negotiating) session of the TRIPs Council, Chair Ambassador Eduardo Perez Motta (Mexico) proposed that organisations, which currently hold observer status in the TRIPs Council, should be granted ad hoc observer status for the special sessions until the Trade Negotiations Committee decided on this question . Egypt, however, preferred that the Council wait for the TNC’s decision while India requested more time to consider the proposal. The issue remained unresolved. ICTSD Internal Files.