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

Ambassador Gail Mathurin (Jamaica)
J.ii (ii) LDC priority needs for technical and financial cooperation
99. The representative of Uganda said that, in accordance with paragraph 2 of the Decision, his delegation had submitted its needs assessment as contained in document IP/C/W500. At the Council's meeting in October 2007, the importance of the needs assessment exercise had been emphasized by his delegation. Subsequent to that, Uganda had transformed the needs and priorities into clear bankable programmes ready for implementation, as summarized in document IP/C/W/510. His delegation was appreciative of the initial responses by the development partners during the informal meetings that had been arranged by the WTO Secretariat and was ready to continue discussions in order to reach agreement on the implementation of the identified projects. The overall goal of the UTIP programme was to further integrate Uganda into the global economy and world trading system by increasing the contribution of intellectual property towards the achievement of sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. Under Article 67 of the Agreement, developed country Members had an obligation to provide technical and financial assistance to LDCs and developing countries to implement the Agreement. With this support, Uganda could develop a viable intellectual property infrastructure and implement the Agreement at the end of the expiry of the transition period.
IP/C/M/57