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

H.E. Ambassador Dr. Walter Werner
9   FOLLOW-UP TO THE SIXTEENTH ANNUAL REVIEW UNDER PARAGRAPH 2 OF THE DECISION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLE 66.2 OF THE TRIPS AGREEMENT
130.   It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to speak this morning at this important meeting. First of all, on behalf of Myanmar, I would like to express special thanks to the WTO for its assistance to hold the Workshop on the Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIP Agreement, and also express thanks to the LDC participants for their presentations despite their busy schedules and finally thanks to all Members which presented at the Workshop and in this Council meeting. 131.   The Government of Myanmar is exerting its best efforts for all-round development of the country by undertaking a series of political and economic reforms to achieve the vision of becoming a modern, democratic and developed country Member by 2030. Although Myanmar is a least developed country and lacks enough capacity building to fulfil its obligation as a Member of WTO, it is making every best effort. 132.   Myanmar is also continuously working in the area of legislation on trade-related laws and policies such as FDI law, company law, IP laws, competitive policy, etc. Concerning IP laws, the Industrial Design Law and Trademark law have already been approved by the Union Parliament and were signed by the President in January 2019. The remaining two IP laws, on patent and copyright, will also come out soon. 133.   In such a situation, it is also extremely grateful to the developed country Members for assisting technical assistance and technology transfer according to the Article 66.2, both of which are very much beneficial for Myanmar people. Technical assistance and capacity building are essential for Myanmar to be able to overcome the big challenges it faces, especially regarding trade and technological development. 134.   Article 66.2 of the TRIP Agreement is very supportive for the development of LDCs like Myanmar. Encouraging technology transfer in one country will provide technology promotion there. This will, in turn, create an environment for innovation, and will benefit not only the host country, but also the development partner. Therefore, we should consider this Article to be applied continuously for mutual interest. In Myanmar, we have already setup our Sustainable Developing Goals, Economic Policy and Development Assistance Policy, etc. for carrying out country development. In this connection, we would like to refer our Myanmar Development Assistance Policy, 2018 in building an effective cooperation between us. 135.   In conclusion, we would like to inform you that we are ready to constructively engage and to closely work together with the Members of WTO to enabling ourselves to build a sound and viable technological base in order to meaningfully improve Article 66.2 implementation.
28.   The Chair recalled that, at the previous meeting in November 2018, the Council had on its agenda the Sixteenth Annual Review under Paragraph 2 of the Decision on the Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement. At that meeting, delegations had briefly presented the reports submitted by developed country Members under Article 66.2(IP/C/W/646 and Addenda) as well as a proposal by the LDC Group entitled "Proposal on the Implementation of Article 66 of the TRIPS Agreement" (IP/C/W/640 and IP/RD/24). The Council had agreed that it would revert to the item at its next meeting to permit continued consideration of the submitted material.
29.   In order to give LDCs more time to absorb the information provided by developed countries in their reports, and also to ensure that those reports were available in the official languages of the WTO, the Article 66.2 Workshop, which would have usually been held in November 2018, had been postponed. The Workshop had taken place in the two days preceding the meeting of the Council. Some of the capital-based delegates, who had participated in that Workshop would participate in the discussions under this agenda item. He invited delegations to comment on the materials that had been submitted for the meeting that had taken place in November 2018 and to share their experiences from the Article 66.2 Workshop.
30.   The representatives of Chad, on behalf of the LDC Group, the Central African Republic, Senegal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vanuatu, Japan, Australia, Switzerland, the United States of America, Norway, New Zealand, the European Union, Canada and the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) took the floor.
IP/C/M/91, IP/C/M/91/Add.1, IP/C/M/91/Corr.1