Minutes - TRIPS Council - View details of the intervention/statement

Mr. Martin Glass (Hong Kong, China)
Angola on behalf of Least-developed countries
J EIGHTH ANNUAL REVIEW UNDER PARAGRAPH 2 OF THE DECISION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLE 66.2 OF THE TRIPS AGREEMENT
339. The representative of Angola, speaking on behalf of the LDC Group, said that the previous day's dialogue had facilitated exchange of information on developed country partners' initiatives. Since such dialogues had been initiated, there had been notable progress made in the format and contents of reports submitted under Article 66.2 review. However, there was still room for further improvement to ensure that this process was not just about fulfilling notification obligations, but about having tangible results, as far as transfer of technology and building a viable and sound technological base in LDCs were concerned. Although this item had been on the Council's agenda for some time, there had been limited progress reported to date. 340. She thanked those developed countries that had provided reports for this eighth review. Article 66.2 contained an obligation for developed country Members that was specific to LDCs, i.e. providing incentives to enterprises and institutions in developed country Members' territories. The purpose was to promote and encourage the transfer of technology. Last but not least, the ultimate objective was to enable LDCs to create a sound and viable technological base. This should therefore be the basis for measuring the effectiveness and impact of incentives provided to LDCs. In order to ensure quality reporting, it was necessary for the Council to begin deliberating on critical elements with a view to develop a common understanding of the contents of the reports. 341. She identified the following two critical areas: the definition of technology transfer and an illustration of "types of incentives". As regards "technology transfer", it was clear from the submitted reports that there was a lack of common understanding of what constituted technology transfer, hence the inclusion in some reports of technical cooperation activities. Therefore, it would be useful to provide a non-exhaustive list of what could possibly be regarded as "technology transfer" for purposes of Article 66.2. Regarding the "types of incentives", it would be equally important to have a non-exhaustive list of types of incentives to guide the reports. It would also be useful to have specific examples of incentives that had led to transfer of technology and subsequent contribution to the building of a sound and viable technological base in LDCs, so that one could draw best practices. 342. As had already been stated in the past, including in the dialogue held the previous day, there was a need to ensure that the reports: (i) were LDC specific and assessed whether incentives had resulted in actual transfer of technology; (ii) did not contain technical cooperation activities that were to be reported under Article 67; (iii) provided an indication of funding or budget allocated for each incentive programme; and (iv) followed a harmonized format. To this end, she proposed that the Council considered the development of the following: (i) clear parameters on what constituted "technology transfer"; (ii) clear parameters on "types of incentives" by developed countries to their enterprises and institutions; and (iii) a uniform reporting mechanism. The LDCs had circulated a possible template that could be considered for this purpose. It would also be useful to work towards having a toolkit for assessing the impact of technology transfer.
IP/C/M/64