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

Ambassador W. Armstrong (New Zealand)
G.ii Accession
27. The Chairman said that the General Council, at its meeting on 2 October 1996, approving the Protocols of Accession for Bulgaria and Panama and the reports of the working parties on their requests for accession (WT/ACC/BGR/5 and WT/ACC/PAN/19 and addenda and corrigenda), had adopted decisions allowing Bulgaria and Panama to accede to the WTO Agreement under the terms set out in their respective Protocols of Accession. Paragraph 2 of the Protocol of Accession for Bulgaria (WT/ACC/BGR/7) incorporated the commitment given by Bulgaria in relation to intellectual property as reproduced in paragraph 85 of the report of the Working Party on the Accession of Bulgaria. According to this paragraph, "[t]he representative of Bulgaria confirmed that his Government would apply the provisions of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights by the date of its accession to the WTO, without recourse to any transitional period." Similarly, paragraph 2 of the Protocol for the Accession of Panama (WT/ACC/PAN/21) incorporated the commitment given by Panama in relation to intellectual property as reproduced in paragraph 111 of the report of the Working Party on the Accession of Panama. According to this paragraph, "[t]he representative of Panama stated that Panama would fully apply all the provisions of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights by the date of its accession to the WTO, without recourse to any transitional period."
IP/C/M/11