166. The Chairman recalled that, at Doha, the Ministerial Conference had adopted a decision on Implementation-Related Issues and Concerns (WT/MIN(01)/17). Paragraph 11.1 of the Decision stated that "[t]he TRIPS Council is directed to continue its examination of the scope and modalities for complaints of the types provided for under subparagraphs 1(b) and 1(c) of Article XXIII of GATT 1994 and make recommendations to the Fifth Session of the Ministerial Conference. It is agreed that, in the meantime, Members will not initiate such complaints under the TRIPS Agreement." He also recalled that, at its meeting in September 2002, the Council had set the first meeting of the Council in 2003 as a target date for the submission of specific proposals from delegations. This, however, was not to preclude earlier papers or later ones in an effort to find common ground. Since then, the Council had received one specific proposal on a recommendation that the Council could make to the Cancún Ministerial Conference. This proposal, introduced by Peru at the Council's previous meeting, had been circulated in document IP/C/W/385. Points raised by delegations in the substantive discussion on this agenda item earlier in the course of the debate had been summarized in a Secretariat note that was circulated prior to the Council's June 2002 meeting in document IP/C/W/349. Subsequent discussions had been based on the annotated agenda that had been circulated prior to that meeting in document Job(02)/66 raising a number of questions that Members might wish to address. Summing up, he said that the Council should soon agree on the recommendation it had been instructed to make to the Cancún Ministerial Conference. Since the Council had agreed on the date for the submission of specific proposals on the matter, the Secretariat had received one proposal. He invited Members to comment on two issues, namely, how the Council should proceed on this matter and, second, what in their view should be the contents of the Council's recommendation to the Ministerial Conference.
