5. The Chairperson recalled that, on 1 January 2000, the transitional periods of Article 65.2 and 65.3 had expired. Consequently, obligations had entered into effect on that date for a large number of Members who had been entitled to avail themselves of these general transitional periods. Their obligation under Article 63.2 to notify their national implementing legislation had also become effective. The procedures adopted by the Council for such notifications were contained in document IP/C/2 and called for them to be made within 30 days, i.e. by the end of January 2000. The Secretariat had prepared a note reflecting the status of the notifications received so far, as it had done in 1996 when similar obligations had entered into force for developed country Members. The note was divided into three sections, one dealing with the notifications due by those Members that had agreed to have their legislation reviewed in June 2000, a second one concerning the Members to be reviewed in November 2000, and a third one relating to the remaining Members. The note showed from which Members notifications had been received and distributed. In several cases, the Secretariat was in contact with delegations in order to get the necessary additions to the notifications or clarifications of certain points. In the distribution of these notifications, the Secretariat had given priority to those received from delegations whose legislation was scheduled for review in June 2000. Virtually all the material received from these Members had been distributed. However, as the table concerning these Members in the Secretariat note showed, gaps remained. Although eight of these Members had fully or largely completed their notifications, five of these eight had not yet notified their responses to the Checklist of Issues on Enforcement contained in document IP/C/5. From the other five Members some material had been received, but most of it was still outstanding. Given that the deadline for submitting questions to the Members to be reviewed in June was 17 April, he urged them to submit the outstanding material without delay. In case some of the material to be notified was not yet ready, he suggested that the delegations concerned submit whatever could be notified without delay and complement the notification as soon as other parts of the material were ready for submission.
6. Continuing, he said that the note also showed that many Members had not yet submitted any notification concerning their implementing legislation at all, in particular those whose legislation would be reviewed at a later stage. He recalled that Article 63.2 of the Agreement required Members to notify the laws and regulations pertaining to the subject-matter of the Agreement applicable as of 1 January 2000. The purpose of this obligation was to assist the Council in its review of the operation of the Agreement and he, therefore, appealed to those Members which had yet to notify their TRIPS implementing legislation to do so without delay, pursuant to the Council decision contained in document IP/C/2.
