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

H.E. Ambassador Xolelwa Mlumbi-Peter
8 NON-VIOLATION AND SITUATION COMPLAINTS
  1. The ACP Group wishes to congratulate you on your assumption of your role as the Chair of this very important Council and to reassure you of the Group's support during your tenure.
  2. The moratorium provided for under Article 64.2 of TRIPS has played an important role during the conclusion of the TRIPS Agreement. This provision avoided the hasty use of a device on which further discussion was needed, as well as afforded time for more clarity in Members' positions.
  3. The ACP Group wishes to underscore the continued importance to WTO Members of the examination of the applicability of non-violation complaints to the TRIPS Agreement. While the views of Members may vary on whether to allow for such complaints, Members have consistently agreed to continue examination of this issue; most recently at the WTO General Council meeting in December 2019, where Members agreed to:

take note of the work done by the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights pursuant to the Ministerial Conference decision of 13 December 2017 on "TRIPS Non-violation and situation complaints" (WT/L/1033).

  1. Members further agreed that the TRIPS Council would:

continue its examination of the scope and modalities for complaints of the types provided for under subparagraphs 1(b) and 1(c) of Article XXIII of GATT 1994 and make recommendations to the 12th Ministerial Conference. It is agreed that, in the meantime, Members will not initiate such complaints under the TRIPS Agreement.

  1. Consistent with this General Council Decision, the ACP Group recommends that the Council keeps the agenda item open and reconvene once further work is sufficiently mature, with a view to agreeing on a recommendation to the twelfth Ministerial Conference.
The Council so took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matters at its next meeting.
26.   The Chair recalled the General Council decision of 10 December 2019, in which Members had decided to extend the Moratorium on TRIPS non-violation and situation complaints until the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12). In line with the original mandate, that decision had instructed the TRIPS Council to "continue its examination of the scope and modalities" for such complaints "and make recommendations to the 12th Ministerial Conference."
27.   In the discussions that had taken place in December 2019, many delegations had emphasized the need for a more detailed discussion on TRIPS non-violation, so that Ministers could take a wellinformed decision on scope and modalities at MC12. Most delegations had also said that they were open to engage constructively and discuss concrete proposals for scope and modalities.
28.   Against the background of the postponement of MC12, she was hopeful that Members were willing to use the additional time available to return to a substantive discussion of the issues. She had gone over the state of discussions in her preparations for the present meeting and her impression was that a number of shared understandings regarding TRIPS non-violation could in fact be harvested from the past discussions. This might enable the Council to focus its engagement on formulating the areas of disagreement; and, thus make at least some progress in framing the questions for ministers at MC12.
29.   Some delegations had indicated their willingness to make submissions in this regard to provide a basis for constructive discussions. She encouraged those delegations to do that soon, in order to make best use of the time available. The existing positions were very well known and very clearly on the record, so there was no need to reiterate them. She invited Members to share their views on how to approach TRIPS non-violation discussions between the present meeting and MC12.
30.   The representatives of Brazil; Tanzania, on behalf of the African Group; Bangladesh; Nigeria; India; Thailand; China; Argentina; Chile; Zimbabwe; Switzerland; Canada; the United States of America; Indonesia; the European Union; and, Jamaica, on behalf of the ACP Group took the floor. The representatives of Kenya and South Africa requested that their respective statements be included in the record of the meeting.
31.   The Council so took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matters at its next meeting.
IP/C/M/95, IP/C/M/95/Add.1