GI NEGOTIATIONS PROGRESS IN INFORMAL MODE
The Ambassador Eui-yong Chung (Korea), Chair of the Council for Trade- related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) special session, has produced a document containing "possible elements" and "options" for a multilateral register for geographical indications (GIs) for wines and spirits. The paper was based on consultations with a number of Members, and intended to provide momentum in the negotiations. It has been discussed among Members and at informal sessions on 21 March and 1 April. Chair Eui-yong Chung stressed that the paper does not set out consensus positions, and he will circulate an actual first draft on his own responsibility before the next formal TRIPs Council meeting unless Members provide him with one. Members are scrutinising the draft topic by topic, although they continue to disagree on the key issue. Australia, Canada, Japan, the US and others envisage the system to function mainly as a database and that the protection of registered terms should be "voluntary". The EC, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Sri Lanka and others are advocating that Members should be required to protect the GIs registered in the multilateral system and that "voluntary" registration would allow countries to choose whether to register a particular GI. The former group said a negotiating draft would be premature at this time, while the latter felt that these issues had been discussed for years, and supported a phase of real negotiations by the end of April. WTO Members are mandated to finalise the negotiations on a multilateral system by the next WTO Ministerial Conference in September. The next TRIPs Council meeting is tentatively scheduled for 29-30 April.
ICTSD reporting.