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

Ambassador Dacio Castillo (Honduras)
6 NON-VIOLATION AND SITUATION COMPLAINTS
172. I take this opportunity to thank the Secretariat for the very useful briefing yesterday. The delegation of Bangladesh believes that legal grounds for non-violation and situation complaints under TRIPS are very weak. Probably that is why all the Membership unanimously has extended the moratorium several times. As far as the history and statistics are concerned, we find very few instances where non-violation disputes were brought before the WTO with even fewer successes for this type of cases. Developing countries and especially LDCs are particularly concerned as they enjoy different kinds of privileges under TRIPS and any one of them could be subject to non-violation complaints quite unnecessarily. The TRIPS Agreement should not be considered like other market access agreements. So we consider that the application of non-violation and situation complaints under TRIPS will not be reasonable and prudent.
The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matter at its next meeting.
6.1. The Chairman recalled that, at its meeting in October 2013, the Council had agreed to recommend that the Ninth Session of the Ministerial Conference decide to extend the moratorium on TRIPS non-violation and situation complaints. Pursuant to this recommendation, Ministers had directed the TRIPS Council 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 their next Session, which they had decided to hold in 2015. It had been agreed that, in the meantime, Members would not initiate such complaints under the TRIPS Agreement (WT/L/906).

6.2. At the Council's meeting in October 2013, the Chair had reported on the consultations on TRIPS non-violation and situation complaints that he had held in preparation of that meeting. At that time, he had reported that, at his open-ended informal meetings, delegations had been in agreement on a Council recommendation to the Ministerial Conference that it extend the moratorium on TRIPS non-violation and situation complaints until the next Ministerial Conference.

6.3. At the same time, Members had indicated readiness to engage in early 2014 in intensified work on the examination of the scope and modalities for such complaints with the intent of finding a way out of the current cycle of extending the non-violation moratorium from one Ministerial Conference to the next. Furthermore, a number of delegations had said that the briefing that the Secretariat had organized in October 2012 to provide factual background information on such complaints had been useful and hoped that, since there had been turnover among delegations, the Secretariat would hold another such a briefing to enable them to engage in substantive discussions on the matter. At the Council's October meeting, he had also indicated that he intended to consult with delegations in early 2014 on how to organize the Council's intensified work on this matter.

6.4. Ambassador Suescum had informed the Chair that, accordingly, he had held two open-ended informal meetings earlier in February to consult with delegations on how to organize the Council's intensified work on TRIPS non-violation and situation complaints, encouraging them to come prepared with concrete ideas on how to move forward the work. As to any concrete ideas, one delegation had said that it was meeting bilaterally with other delegations and hoped to be in a position to share such ideas at the present meeting. Some delegations had underlined the need for engagement without offering any specific suggestions. Some other delegations had said that they wished to see similar engagement also on other issues.

6.5. In response to the request that the Secretariat hold another briefing on non-violation and situation complaints, the Secretariat had held a briefing on this topic in the morning of 24 February. Its purpose had been to provide factual background information on the topic to delegations in order to enable them to engage in substantive discussions and to facilitate the Council's consideration of this matter.

6.6. The representatives of the United States, Brazil, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, China, South Africa, Cuba, Canada, India, Ecuador, Pakistan, Japan, Switzerland, the European Union, Bangladesh, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Korea, Nigeria on behalf of the African Group, Angola on behalf of the LDC Group and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela took the floor under this agenda item.

6.7. The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matter at its next meeting.

IP/C/M/75, IP/C/M/75/Add.1