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

H.E. Ambassador Dr. Walter Werner
United States of America
9   FOLLOW-UP TO THE SIXTEENTH ANNUAL REVIEW UNDER PARAGRAPH 2 OF THE DECISION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLE 66.2 OF THE TRIPS AGREEMENT

151.   United States also thank the Secretariat for its efforts in organizing the Workshop. We also found it to be an excellent programme that, in particular, benefited from the participation of capitalbased officials from LDCs. 152.   The United States appreciated the opportunity to present and share details on our most recent Article 66.2 submission IP/C/W/646. 153.   At the workshop we gained insight into the perspective and needs of LDCs and hope that the LDC Members also left the workshop with a better understanding of our extensive programmes and activities. 154.   We took note of the idea shared during this week's workshop of the designation of focal points on 66.2 reports for both LDC and developed country Members. 155.   We understand that LDC focal points could play an important role in disseminating information or reports about technology transfer programmes and their effectiveness to broader audiences, so technology transfer projects could be better leveraged in the country. 156.   However, with respect to the United States, the nature of our programmes and technical assistance do not immediately seem to lend themselves to such a structure under the WTO. 157.   It is quite an undertaking each year to take stock of the programmes we report to the TRIPS Council. As you can see from our recent reports, there is not one coordinating body that undertakes all of these programs. We therefore view it best to continue to implement these programmes and these reports as we have. 158.   Of course, we are always willing to meet with interested Members to discuss ways to ensure that our programmes and reports are as helpful as possible.

28.   The Chair recalled that, at the previous meeting in November 2018, the Council had on its agenda the Sixteenth Annual Review under Paragraph 2 of the Decision on the Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement. At that meeting, delegations had briefly presented the reports submitted by developed country Members under Article 66.2(IP/C/W/646 and Addenda) as well as a proposal by the LDC Group entitled "Proposal on the Implementation of Article 66 of the TRIPS Agreement" (IP/C/W/640 and IP/RD/24). The Council had agreed that it would revert to the item at its next meeting to permit continued consideration of the submitted material.
29.   In order to give LDCs more time to absorb the information provided by developed countries in their reports, and also to ensure that those reports were available in the official languages of the WTO, the Article 66.2 Workshop, which would have usually been held in November 2018, had been postponed. The Workshop had taken place in the two days preceding the meeting of the Council. Some of the capital-based delegates, who had participated in that Workshop would participate in the discussions under this agenda item. He invited delegations to comment on the materials that had been submitted for the meeting that had taken place in November 2018 and to share their experiences from the Article 66.2 Workshop.
30.   The representatives of Chad, on behalf of the LDC Group, the Central African Republic, Senegal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vanuatu, Japan, Australia, Switzerland, the United States of America, Norway, New Zealand, the European Union, Canada and the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) took the floor.
IP/C/M/91, IP/C/M/91/Add.1, IP/C/M/91/Corr.1