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

Mr. S. Harbinson (Hong Kong)
C.2.i Procedures for giving effect to the obligation to notify implementing legislation under Article 63.2
12. The representative of New Zealand said that his delegation had no problems with the "Working Hypothesis" as contained in document IP/C/W/6. His delegation had found the other documents produced by the Secretariat particularly useful in putting together its own notifications. Perhaps his delegation was in an advantageous position compared to some other delegations, in that New Zealand had taken the decision to put in place all the TRIPS-related legislation by the end of last year. This legislation had entered into force on 1 January 1995 and, thus, New Zealand had already met its obligations under the TRIPS Agreement. Some legislation had had to be completely rewritten, while in other cases statutes had been amended. As a result, his delegation found itself in the position of being ready to submit a full notification and hoped to do so shortly. His delegation had followed, in particular, document IP/C/W/8 in terms of the treatment and layout of its notification. As regards the draft schedule as contained in document IP/C/W/7, he had some sympathy for the views expressed by the representative of Korea in terms of the exact order in which the review of these notifications should take place. He also believed that the United States had raised some valid questions in regard to this document. He expressed the hope that answers to questions relating to notifications would be in writing and wondered whether it could be confirmed that such was, indeed, intended in the explanatory notes to the draft schedule in document IP/C/W/7.
IP/C/M/3