H.E. Ambassador Dr Pimchanok PITFIELD

Nigeria

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

123.  I wish to recall our previous statements regarding agenda items 5 and 6. 124.  We reiterate the importance for Members to engage in discussions with the aim to promote traceability of genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore. We consider it necessary to establish a requirement for a prior informed consent and benefit sharing systems in respect of any product manufactured through the use of genetic components or traditional knowledge and folklore. We believe the requirement of disclosure contained presently in the TRIPS Agreement remain inadequate. Hence the need to improve existing provisions by the consideration of past proposals in this respect. This will reduce the incidence of misappropriation. The improper acquisition of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge without prior informed consent and on mutually agreed terms, in accordance with national laws of the country providing the genetic resource or associated traditional knowledge continue to be a significant concern for Nigeria. We believe that the WTO has an important role to play and that the discussions at the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) can be complementary to the discussions at the TRIPS Council. 125.  Finally, we urge the Secretariat to provide updates to the three factual notes. We stand ready to engage constructively on this matter.

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

17. The Chair proposed to address these three agenda items together. She recalled that one tool for the review under item 4 was the information provided by Members in response to lists of questions on Article 27.3(b). She said that the latest Annual Report on Notifications and other Information Flows circulated by the Secretariat illustrated that responses to that checklist had been rather sparse recently. So far, only 28 Members had responded to the lists of questions on Article 27.3(b), with Saudi Arabia being the most recent Member to respond in 2021. The Chair thus encouraged Members to submit responses to these checklists, and to update their previous submissions if they were out of date.
18. The Chair noted that two long-standing procedural issues had been discussed extensively on the record at every regular meeting of the Council for almost ten years. The first was the suggestion for the Secretariat to update three factual notes on the Council's discussions on the TRIPS and CBD and related items; these notes were initially prepared in 2002 and last updated in 2006. The second was the request to invite the CBD Secretariat to brief the Council on the Nagoya Protocol to the CBD, initially proposed in October 2010.
19. The Chair noted that delegations' positions on these issues were well-known and had already been extensively recorded in the Council's minutes. She therefore suggested that delegations focus their interventions on suggestions on how to resolve the differences and on how make progress on substantive issues.
20. The representatives of India; Bangladesh; Indonesia; Peru; South Africa; China; Tanzania, on behalf of the African Group; Ecuador; the United States of America; Japan; Nigeria; Thailand; Korea, Republic of; Canada and Brazil took the floor.
21. The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to these matters at its next meeting.

IP/C/M/108, IP/C/M/108/Add.1