H.E. Ambassador Dr Walter Werner

Benin

16.4 WORK PROGRAMME ON E-COMMERCE

511.   I was asking myself questions about your conclusion. For our part, we wonder whether delegations have higher status than Ministers who took the decision, because in the organisational chart of the WTO the highest body for taking decisions is the Ministerial Conference, and the Ministerial Conference took a decision. One delegation says no, I object to the decision taken at the Ministerial Conference. This is a systemic problem and it is harmful to our work. I believe we should draw some lessons from this, we should be aware that we have a mandate, irrespective of the interests of one party, we cannot call that decision into question, unless we have another Ministerial Conference at which Ministers declare that they no longer agree on the decision that they took before. In that case, Members do not have to put this on the agenda of the Council any more. Otherwise it should be done automatically. We do not even have to have consultations on it. If Members have interests to raise and concerns and do not want to discuss this, well these Members do not have to discuss it, but they cannot prevent others from raising points that they wish to discuss within the Council in conformity with the existing mandate. It is important to stress this: "in conformity with the existing mandate". The delegation of Benin stresses that this arises systematically and it is harmful. We should not fall into this trap.

70.   The Chair recalled that, at the 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11), Ministers had agreed that the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce be continued, based on the existing mandate adopted by the General Council in September 1998. They had instructed the General Council to periodically review the work on the basis of reports to be submitted by the relevant WTO bodies. For the first such review in July 2018, the Chair of the General Council, Ambassador Ihara, had asked him to report on the work carried out in the TRIPS Council. To prepare for this, he had bilaterally discussed with some delegations whether they intended to discuss the Work Programme on E-Commerce at this meeting. In the informal consultations with a small group of Members last week, one delegation had raised the question as to how the TRIPS Council could best give the appropriate follow-up to the Ministerial Decision to continue the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce. Given that there had been no request for the inclusion of an ad hoc agenda item on ecommerce, the Chair invited delegations to share any views or ideas on this issue under "Other Business".
71.   The representatives of Bangladesh, the United States, Brazil, Benin, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the European Union took the floor.
72.   The Chair said that he would consult on how to move forward with regard to procedural matters.
73.   The Council took note of the statements made.
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IP/C/M/89, IP/C/M/89/Add.1