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

H.E. Ambassador Lundeg Purevsuren
Chad on behalf of LDC Group
9 SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REVIEW UNDER PARAGRAPH 2 OF THE DECISION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLE 66.2 OF THE TRIPS AGREEMENT
  1. I am making this statement on behalf of the Group of least developed countries (LDC Group). The Chair of the LDC Group wishes to thank the WTO Secretariat, the experts, our partners the developed countries who were present at that workshop that was held over the past couple of days. At this Workshop, all of these entities helped to shed light on the concept of incentives and the transfer of technology, and their contributions were very rich and interesting, and this helps LDCs to move towards effective implementation of Article 66.2, and to boost the mechanisms for transparency with regard to the transfer of technology. This workshop also enabled us to highlight the binding nature of Article 66.2 and enabled us to be very clear about the distinction that must exist between implementation of Article 66.2 as compared to Article 67 which deals with technical cooperation.
  2. Now, in regard to the particular challenges that LDCs are faced with, throughout the technology sectors, during this Workshop the coordinator mentioned lags in the areas of agriculture and trade and services, in industry. Regarding all of these lags, LDCs made use of Article 66.2 and made it one of their priorities in the work of the TRIPS Council, but also in other work here at the WTO. We believe that this Article enables LDCs for example to enhance their agricultural production, it also enables SMEs and LDCs to be competitive on the international market and especially enhance our improved integration in world trade.
  3. For nearly two decades the LDC Group has been participating in this annual workshop on the presentation of reports submitted by developed country Members on implementation of Article 66.2. This is a very interesting and relevant exercise and the LDC Group hopes that we can continue this and expand on it.
  4. The LDC Group has always shown that it has been proactive in this respect and it will continue to be proactive here in this Council but also in our bilateral meetings with each and every developed country Member. From our discussions during our workshops it has arisen that some developed country Members have shown willingness to find a common definition of incentive to enterprises and institutions in their territories and the technology transfer. Others believe that Article 66.2 does not present an obligation to transfer technology to LDCs, but the aim is to help LDCs to have favourable conditions to benefit from technology transfers. Article 66.2 presents developed countries with an obligation, I insist on that, it asks developed country Members to provide incentives to enterprises and institutions in their territories for the purpose of promoting and encouraging technology transfer and then it is for the enterprises and institutions targeted by Article 66.2 to act.
  5. We believe that during the TRIPS meeting of last February 2019 a proposal that we deemed rather relevant, was on establishing a focal point for developed country Members and another focal point for LDCs. We think that that would be quite useful indeed to help us to assess the implementation of Article 66.2 and therefore we hope that this provision can be established so that we can specifically assess the situation on the ground through that particular mechanism. This will also help highlight LDCs priorities as regards technology transfer. In addition, the WTO Secretariat also set up a e-TRIPS platform, we believe that it is quite interesting and perhaps this can be further fine-tuned and improved by involving LDCs genuinely in order to look at implementation on the ground of this article through statistics but also we need to highlight LDC priorities in this platform.
  6. The LDC Group wishes to thank all Members here who have presented their annual reports and who regularly report on their contributions under Article 66.2. We take note of the efforts made by certain developed country Members to promote and encourage technology transfer to LDCs. The LDC Group underscores that the contribution of experts and exchanges that have taken place in the workshops and the clarity provided, this will enable all of us, developed country Members and LDCs to continue our dialogue but also to reach joint mutual understanding on these incentives to enterprises and institutions in their territories and of technology transfers in that context.
  7. Lastly as recalled earlier in introductory remarks on this agenda item, the LDC Group made a proposal for a new template for annual reporting on technology transfer to LDCs, this is again under Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement. The LDC Group believes that this proposed template will help streamline the reporting procedure to synchronise the current reporting variations and to acknowledge the substance of contributions of developed country Members with precision on the basis of factual information. We believe that this proposal will enable us to make progress on this matter and help operationally implement Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement. Our focal point of Bangladesh will perhaps provide more information on that.
The Council took note of the statements made.
25.   The Chair recalled that, at its meeting in October 2019, the Council had had on its agenda the 17th 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 updated reports submitted by developed country Members under Article 66.2. Since that meeting New Zealand had submitted its updated report. All updated reports had been circulated under IP/C/W/656 and addenda. At that meeting, the Council had also agreed that it would revert to the item at the present meeting to permit continued consideration of the submitted material.
26.   In order to give LDC Members more time to absorb the information provided by developed countries in their reports, and to ensure that these reports were available in the official languages of the WTO, the Article 66.2 Workshop had once again taken place back-to-back with the TRIPS Council meeting. This had allowed some of the capital-based delegates who had participated in the Workshop, to participate in the meeting and take part in the discussions under this agenda item.
27.   The LDC Group has circulated a Room document entitled, "Proposed New Template of annual Reporting on Technology Transfer to LDCs". This room document RD/IP/37 was available online on documents for meetings, and as a paper copy at the back of the meeting room. He noted that the English and French texts were both contained in the same document. He invited the Secretariat to report on the Workshop.
28.   A representative of the Secretariat took the floor.
29.   The Chair invited delegations to comment on the materials submitted for the last meeting, as well as to share their experiences from the Article 66.2 Workshop held in the past two days.
30.   The representatives of Chad, on behalf of the LDC Group; Bangladesh; the United Kingdom; Switzerland; the United States of America; Canada; the European Union; Japan; Norway; Vanuatu; Australia; and the African Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) took the floor.
31.   The Council took note of the statements made.
IP/C/M/94, IP/C/M/94/Add.1