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

H.E. Ambassador Dagfinn Sørli (Norway)
4; 5; 6 REVIEW OF THE PROVISIONS OF ARTICLE 27.3(B); RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TRIPS AGREEMENT AND THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY; PROTECTION OF TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND FOLKLORE
72.   Australia believes that WIPO IGC is best placed, with appropriate technical expertise, to consider the complex issues relating to IP and genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge and cultural expressions. We hope Members would adopt a spirit of compromise to make meaningful progress in ongoing discussions in WIPO IGC.
The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the issues at its next meeting.
21. The Chair said that the next three agenda items concerned the Review of the Provisions of Article 27.3(b), the Relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Folklore. Following past practice, he proposed that these three items be addressed together.
22. The Chair recalled that one tool for the review under agenda item 3 was the information provided by Members in response to a list of questions on Article 27.3(b) of the TRIPS Agreement. The "Annual Report on Notifications and other Information Flows" that had been introduced at Council's meeting in March, had illustrated that responses to this checklist had been rather sparse recently. So far, only 28 Members had responded to the list of questions on Article 27.3(b), with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia being the most recent Member to submit responses. He encouraged delegations to submit responses or update their previous responses, as well as notify any relevant changes in legislation.
23. The Chair recalled that two long-standing procedural issues under these items had also been discussed extensively, on the record, at every regular meeting of the Council for almost ten years now:
a. First, the suggestion for the Secretariat to update the three factual notes on the Council's discussions on the TRIPS and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and related items; these notes were initially prepared in 2002 and last updated in 2006; and
b. second, the request to invite the CBD Secretariat to brief the Council on the Nagoya Protocol to the CBD, initially proposed in October 2010.
24. Following suggestions made at the June 2021 meeting, the Chair had raised these questions with delegations again during the preparatory consultations on 6 October. While he had not detected any movement in delegations' positions on these two issues, he had noted a willingness to engage bilaterally on possible solutions in this regard. He encouraged delegations to pursue this option to resolve these differences soon.
25. Members' positions on these issues were well known and already extensively recorded in the Council's minutes. He encouraged delegations to focus on suggesting solutions, when addressing these procedural questions.
26. The representatives of Brazil; China; Bangladesh; India; Indonesia; Zimbabwe; the Plurinational State of Bolivia; Nigeria; South Africa; Canada; the United States; Japan; Australia; and the United Kingdom took the floor.
27. The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the issues at its next meeting.
IP/C/M/103, IP/C/M/103/Add.1, IP/C/M/103/Rev.1