H.E. Ambassador Dagfinn Sørli and Ambassador Dr. Lansana Gberie

Bangladesh

10 FOLLOW-UP TO THE NINETEENTH ANNUAL REVIEW UNDER PARAGRAPH 2 OF THE DECISION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLE 66.2 OF THE TRIPS AGREEMENT

169.   On behalf of Bangladesh delegation, I greet you all from our capital Dhaka. My delegation thanks the Secretariat, particularly the ITTC and the team of the IP Division, for organizing the annual Workshop on the Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement from 2 to 4 March 2022. During this time of pandemic, with travel restrictions and other sanitary measures in place, the Secretariat has organized this Workshop successfully through the virtual platform. The Workshop earlier provided opportunity for the participants, both from the LDCs and developed countries, to meet each other virtually. We hope that next year an 'in person reunion' will be possible to exchange our views more interactively. 170.   The capital-based colleagues from the LDCs provided feedback through a voluntary survey questionnaire. The information shared by the LDCs will be helpful for the Secretariat to know the priorities of the LDCs and design future technical assistance programmes in this regard. The survey questions will also help informed dialogues among the LDCs and developed country Members on technology transfer issues. My delegation requests the Secretariat to compile a list of prioritised technologies identified by the LDCs in the Workshop and report to the next meeting of the TRIPS Council. 171.   My delegation has tentatively prioritized the following sectors/areas for technology transfer to my country: Agriculture and Food; Environment and Climate Change; Public Health and Pharmaceuticals; Information and Communication Technology (ICT); Construction, Infrastructure and Transport; Manufacturing; Mining. Bangladesh hopes that developed country Members should initiate targeted activities and projects to transfer specific technologies in those specific priority areas in my country. My delegation thanks the developed country Members for their annual reports under TRIPS Article 66.2 and we are happy that most of the reports in 2021 are now following the format suggested by the LDC Group. My delegation fully understands the efforts involved in compiling all the relevant programmes out of the many valuable projects that are implemented under each country's development assistance and also acknowledges the valuable benefits generated by each of the projects. 172.   We expect that the annual reports should specify the beneficiary LDCs and identify the specific technology that has been transferred. Although, as we see the latest 2021 reports, in some of the projects it is difficult to identify what precise technology has been transferred. There is also mixture of technical assistance (under TRIPS Article 67) initiatives including the names of some non-LDC developing countries as the beneficiary. In some of the reports, the website does not provide information. It would also be worth knowing what actual impact was made with respect to technology absorption in the LDCs concerned. We request the developed country reporting Members to kindly share with LDCs the final project evaluation report that is a necessary tool deployed for evaluating all such the Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects related to capacity-building. 173.   My delegation requests that the WTO Secretariat should organize a separate workshop to monitor progress under TRIPS Article 67. This will also help avoid any reporting duplication between Article 66.2 and Article 67 of the TRIPS Agreement. My delegation once again thanks the Secretariat and delegates and speakers from other Members and IGOs who made the TRIPS Article 66.2 annual Workshop truly effective. Bangladesh looks forward to attending the 2023 workshop in person in Geneva. We stand ready to constructively engage with other Members.

The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matter at its next meeting.

51. The Chair recalled that the Council had conducted the Nineteenth Annual Review under Paragraph 2 of the Decision on the Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement at its meeting in October 2021. At that meeting delegations from developed country Members had briefly presented the updated reports they had submitted under Article 66.2, and the Council had agreed that it would revert to the item at the present meeting to permit continued consideration of the submitted material. He also recalled that, in July 2020, the LDC Group had circulated a new submission entitled "Proposed New Template for Annual Reporting under Article 66.2 of the Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights" in document .
52. In order to give LDCs more time to absorb the information provided by developed country Members in their reports, and to ensure that these reports were available in the official languages of the WTO, the Secretariat had once again organized a "Workshop on the Implementation of the Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement". Due to the sanitary situation, the workshop had been held in virtual format on 2, 3 and 4 March 2022. The Chair indicated that some capital-based delegates who had participated in that Workshop were present at the meeting.
53. The Chair asked the Secretariat to report on this Workshop.
54. A representative of the Secretariat took the floor.
55. The representatives of Sierra Leone; Chad,; Bangladesh; Togo; Nepal; Tanzania; Norway; the European Union; the United Kingdom, South Africa; Japan; Switzerland; the United States; Canada; and Australia took the floor.
56. The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matter at its next meeting.

IP/C/M/104/Add.1, IP/C/M/104/Rev.1, IP/C/M104