148. The Chairman recalled that, at its meeting in February 2003, the Council had adopted a decision on the "Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement". Paragraph 1 of the Decision provided that developed country Members shall submit annually reports on actions taken or planned in pursuance of their commitments under Article 66.2. To this end, they were to provide new detailed reports every third year and, in the intervening years, provide updates to their most recent reports. These reports were to be submitted prior to the last Council meeting scheduled for the year in question. He said that the second set of detailed annual reports under the Decision had been presented to the Council's meeting in October 2006. At its meeting in June 2008, the Council had requested developed country Members to submit a second set of updates to those reports for the October meeting. The Secretariat had issued on 14 July an airgram (WTO/AIR/3223) to remind developed country Members of this request.
149. The Council had received reports from the following developed country Members: Japan, New Zealand, Norway, the United States, Switzerland, Canada, the European Communities and individual member States (namely Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom), as well as from Australia (being circulated in document IP/C/W/519 and addenda).
150. As regards the purpose and conduct of the review of this information, he recalled that paragraph 2 of the Decision on the Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement explained that the annual review meetings shall provide Members with an opportunity to pose questions in relation to the information submitted and request additional information, discuss the effectiveness of the incentives provided in promoting and encouraging technology transfer to least-developed country Members in order to enable them to create a sound and viable technological base, and consider any points relating to the operation of the reporting procedure established by the Decision.
151. He said that, since some of the information had been received only very recently, and most of it was available only in its original language, he intended to provide an opportunity at the next meeting for Members to make further comments on the information which had just been submitted and which might not have been studied by Members, as well as on any further information that might be provided before that meeting.
152. He recalled that, just before the Council's meeting in June, the delegation of Lesotho, on behalf of the LDC Group, had sent a request to the WTO Secretariat to organize a workshop that would bring together LDC and developed country experts to discuss transfer of technology under Article 66.2 back to back with the Council's meeting in October. Pursuant to that request, the Secretariat had organized such a workshop the day before the present meeting. He said that he understood that there had been a constructive exchange of views which had been useful to both LDC and developed country delegations.
153. He further said that, as requested by the Council at its meeting in June, the Secretariat had prepared a brief background note setting out the reports that had so far been submitted under the Decision, including the reports for the annual review that had been submitted by 20 October. The note had been circulated in document IP/C/W/522.
