57. The Chairman recalled that, at its meeting on 20 December 2002, the General Council had agreed that the TRIPS Council should resume work on this agenda item promptly in January in order to resolve the outstanding issues in the text that he had circulated on 16 December 2002 (JOB(02)/217) and to report to the General Council in order to enable it to take a decision implementing a solution to the problem identified in paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (hereinafter "the Declaration") at its first meeting in 2003.
58. He said that, upon his report to the General Council at its meeting of 10 February 2003 on the status of his consultations, the General Council had agreed to suspend discussions on the implementation of paragraph 6 of the Declaration and, if necessary, to revert to this issue at a reconvened meeting. He drew the Council's attention to new documents, one submitted by the United States (IP/C/W/396/Corr.1), the second by the European Communities and their member States (JOB(03)/9) and the third by Japan (JOB(03)/19). He regretted to inform the Council that, notwithstanding his consultations on the subject, he was not in a position to put forward any further suggestions or ideas to bridge the remaining gap in his text of 16 December 2002. He encouraged Members who had any new suggestions or ideas in this regard to share them with others.
