151. My delegation associates with the statement made by Haiti on behalf of LDCs.
152. The delegations, who attend the annual review workshop regularly, are perhaps aware of the concerns we have raised in our submission IP/C/W/640. Article 66.2 maintains I quote
"Developed country Members shall provide incentives to enterprises and institutions in their territories for the purpose of promoting and encouraging technology transfer to least-developed country Members in order to enable them to create a sound and viable technological base"
153. In our understanding, Article 66.2 first requires developed country Members to provide incentives to enterprises and institutions in their territories and second, purpose of such incentives must be promoting and encouraging technology transfer to least-developed country Members.
154. We are thankful to the WTO membership for agreeing to a mechanism on implementation of Article 66.2 through notification and annual review 15 years back. During the last 15 years, developed country Members made notifications on regular basis informing us various initiatives, they have taken during this period. According to an estimate, we already have more than four thousand pages of notifications. However, we are not sure whether the measures and initiatives they have referred to in those notifications fall under the Article 66.2. We have not found any provision for incentive to the enterprises in the territory of developed country targeted towards promoting technology transfer to LDCs. We have raised our concerns in each annual review workshop, but we have not received any satisfactory response. For this reason, in order to bring clarity in the implementation of Article 66.2, more specifically incentives to enterprises and institutions in the territory of developed country Members for promoting technology transfer to LDCs, our Trade Ministers in the meeting held in Buenos Aires have instructed us to raise the issue in the TRIPS Council. Accordingly, we have submitted our proposal. We sincerely hope that the TRIPS Council will have constructive discussion in identifying the incentives referred to in Article 66.2. My delegation is ready to engage in discussions in any format with a view to coming up with a decision by the next TRIPS Council meeting.
