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

Mr. S. Harbinson (Hong Kong)
B Arrangements for Cooperation with WIPO
14. The representative of Chile, addressing the issue of possible cooperation in the area of technical assistance, suggested that the Secretariat make an inventory of the existing supply of and demand for technical assistance, thus helping the Council to organize a "market" in the area of such technical assistance. This would facilitate the identification of where technical assistance was lacking and the modalities that needed to be worked out. The guiding principle for decisions to provide technical assistance should be which Organization was the most apt in providing the assistance needed. No institution should have a monopoly in providing technical assistance but have its appropriate share as determined by market forces. As to the issue of cooperation with WIPO, his delegation believed that this should be looked at in greater detail with the Secretariat of WIPO, focusing on which forms of cooperation would be to mutual benefit. The area of prime urgency in this respect was that of notification procedures, where technical assistance was needed to enable all countries to make notifications as promptly as possible. He concluded by emphasizing that WIPO and the WTO should be enabled to operate in a complementary fashion so as to ensure a beneficial allocation of resources.
IP/C/M/1