282. The Chairman said that, since its meeting in March, the Council had received one new request for observer status, namely from the African Intellectual Property Organization, known by its French acronym OAPI. The letter from OAPI together with its attachments had been faxed to all Members on 23 April 2002. The Council currently had 16 pending requests before it. An updated list of pending requests for observer status in the TRIPS Council had been circulated in document IP/C/W/52/Rev.10.
283. In addition, the Secretariat had received additional information in relation to two pending requests for observer status. A letter from the International Office of Vine and Wine, known by its French acronym OIV, provided information on the changes brought about by the Agreement of 3 April 2001 establishing the International Organisation of Vine and Wine. A letter from the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) provided information on decisions adopted at the Conference of the Parties to the CBD held in the Hague, the Netherlands in April 2002 and contained a renewal of the CBD's pending request. This information had been passed to the Members of the Council by the aforementioned fax and a fax dated 14 June 2002.
284. As suggested at the Council's meeting in March, he had conducted consultations on the pending requests. At the Council's informal meeting of 17 May 2002, there had seemed to be agreement on the granting of ad hoc observer status to the African Regional Industrial Property Office (ARIPO), the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), and the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC). These three organizations operated regional intellectual property offices and, hence, were directly involved in implementing the TRIPS Agreement in their member countries. The Chairman reminded the Council that ARIPO provided services to sub-Saharan English speaking countries, OAPI served sub-Saharan French speaking countries and the GCC served the Arab States of the Gulf, i.e. the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. He also noted that the GCC had observer status in the Committee on Trade and Development.
285. Accordingly, he proposed that the Council grant observer status to ARIPO, OAPI and the GCC on an ad hoc basis, i.e. subject to review in the light of any further guidance from the General Council on the grant of observer status to other intergovernmental organizations.
