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

Chairperson: Ambassador Dacio Castillo, Honduras
United States of America
1 NEGOTIATIONS ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A MULTILATERAL SYSTEM OF NOTIFICATION AND REGISTRATION OF GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS FOR WINES AND SPIRITS
1.19. The representative of the United States said that the longstanding divergence of views among delegations on the mandate of Article 23.4 had led to little likelihood that progress could be achieved on this issue. The United States maintained that the demandeurs needed to respect the mandate of the Special Session, which was limited to a GI Register for wines and spirits. More generally, his delegation did not support intensification of work on GIs in the Special Session which was a highly sensitive issue, where overcoming divergences and reaching consensus was challenging. He said that it was particularly unrealistic to conceive of revived work in the Special Session in the absence of any sign of prospects for active negotiations in virtually any other negotiating group falling under the TNC. He said that his delegation agreed with others that this was not an area where Members could realistically achieve consensus outcomes for the 11th Ministerial Conference.
The Special Session took note of the statements made.
TN/IP/M/32