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

Mr. Martin Glass (Hong Kong, China)
Angola on behalf of Least-developed countries
F.1 Experience of Members who have used or considered using the system
91. The representative of Angola, speaking on behalf of the LDC Group, said that the adoption of the Decision of 6 December 2005 to amend the TRIPS Agreement in order to respond to difficulties experienced by countries with no or insufficient manufacturing capacity was an important milestone. However, five years had elapsed since this Decision had been adopted, and few Members had deposited instruments of acceptance of the Protocol Amending the TRIPS Agreement. It was important to establish why countries were not coming forward so that collective measures could be taken. The LDC Group welcomed the informal consultations undertaken by the Chairman in September and October 2010 to facilitate dialogue between Members on the opportunity to hold a workshop on the implementation of the System. This could help to get a sense of where impediments lay with regard to the acceptance process and how the removal of such impediments could be facilitated including through expedited acceptance of the amendment by individual Members. Issues related to the acceptance of the TRIPS amendment could also be incorporated into the national and regional technical assistance and capacity-building activities undertaken by the WTO Secretariat. He noted that the list of topics circulated by the Chairman had been prepared through the consultation process to facilitate the annual review under Paragraph 8 of the Decision. The sharing of experiences and views on the System would enable Members to have clarity on how the System could be meaningfully used and where obstacles lay. Information on alternatives to the System would also be a valuable resource for the LDC Group.
IP/C/M/64