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

H.E. Ambassador Xolelwa Mlumbi-Peter (South Africa)
United States of America
11 EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REVIEW UNDER PARAGRAPH 2 OF THE DECISION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLE 66.2 OF THE TRIPS AGREEMENT

378.   The United States attributes great importance to this review with respect to the obligations under TRIPS Article 66.2. 379.   Our 2020 submission in document IP/C/R/TTI/USA/1 is the second update to our 2018 report, detailing programmes aimed to support LDCs in fostering the necessary environment to encourage the effective, voluntary transfer of technology to LDC Members. The US submission details programmes ranging from intellectual property and trade capacity building to capacity building in health, labour, and the environment.  Similar to the last two years' submissions, this report includes comments from host countries regarding the value of several of the programmes listed in the report. 380.   The United States continues to believe that the effective functioning of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement requires a robust dialogue between developed countries and LDC Members in order to target incentives in a way that is most responsive to the self-identified technology transfer interests and needs of LDC Members. 381.   Please allow me to mention some elements contained in our 2020 report, highlighting a few programme updates. 382.   Founded in July 2013, the Smart Infrastructure for the Mekong (SIM) programme offers governments participating in the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) an array of technical advisory, capacity-building, and support services related to climate-smart, environmentally sound and socially equitable infrastructure, clean energy development, and land and/or water resources use related to sustainable management of the Mekong. Through a multi-agency US government agreement, SIM has access to some of the US government's best engineers, scientists, and technical and policy experts to support these activities. 383.   Under the LMI, the US Department of State supported an October 2018 Information Sharing Programme that brought 13 scientists and practitioners from Myanmar, Thailand, Lao PDR, and Cambodia to Houston, Texas, Miami and Florida. The activity transferred expertise and know-how related to efforts to combat vector-borne diseases, including dengue, Zika, West Nile Virus. 384.   The group's itinerary was designed to focus on three common challenges: 1) bolstering cooperation between environmental management, public health, and health care; 2) strengthening public outreach to affected communities; and 3) incorporating innovative technologies and approaches to model, surveil, and control mosquito vectors. State and local governments are often the best places to observe approaches to addressing these challenges and to understand how programmes work; the group also visited with community and academic partners in each location. 385.   The activity included transfer of expertise and know-how related to the distribution of mosquito traps and surveillance sites and use of data for effective targeting of mosquito control; creation and distribution of multi-lingual, science-based public information products; piloting novel techniques for mosquito control, including "smart" (Internet of Things) devices as well as biological, chemical, and genetic techniques to control mosquito populations; and designing rigorous methods for testing effectiveness of novel techniques. 386.   Results from the activity were used to frame the July 2019 LMI Young Scientist Programme in Vientiane, Lao PDR. The programme, which included 33 students and young professionals from Myanmar, Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia, and Viet Nam, featured participants from the 2018 Information Sharing Programme as speakers and mentors for participants. The theme of the programme was teaching and inspiring participants to build informatics tools to support vector-borne disease control in the region. Additionally, participants acquired knowledge related to ideation, design thinking, teamwork, and prototyping. 387.   The programme evaluations indicate a high level of satisfaction with the programme. Each week's content relevancy earned "satisfied" ratings from 75% or more of participants; several of the individual modules received "satisfied" ratings from more than 95% of participants. 388.   A Laotian specializing in Epidemiology at Michigan State University recalled her experiences during a memorable field trip in Lao PDR: "I have been working in public health area, and my work has focused just on immunization. I had no idea about the severity of Dengue outbreak in Lao PDR before I joined the programme. LMI open my perspective[s] on a very important issues such as vector borne diseases control and prevention. I got to meet brilliant entomologist from Cambodia and learned from them how to identify mosquitos. And I got to meet a mathematician from Thailand who taught me the principle of machine learning," she said. 389.   This and many examples are in our report. We look forward to further discussing our report with LDC Members at the February workshop.

The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matter at its next meeting.
54. The Chair recalled that, under a Council decision of February 2003, developed country Members were to submit annual reports on actions taken or planned in pursuance of their commitments under Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement. They were to provide new detailed reports every third year and updates in the intervening years.
55. In July 2020, the Council had requested developed country Members to submit the second set of updates to the sixth set of new reports in time for the present meeting, and the Secretariat had also circulated a reminder.
56. The LDC Group had also submitted a proposal of a template for the submission of reports on commitments of developed countries under Article 66.2. In her consultations in September 2020, the LDC Group had indicated that they were reaching out to developed countries in this regard.
57. The Council had received updated reports from the United States, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Since the circulation of the revised agenda, the Council had received further reports from the European Union and Canada. The documents were being circulated under the new dedicated document series with the symbol IP/C/R/TTI/[Member]/1 – where "R" stood for "Reports" and "TTI" stood for "Technology Transfer Incentives".
58. Paragraph 2 of the Council's Decision on the Implementation of Article 66.2 explained that the annual review should provide Members with an opportunity to pose questions in relation to the information submitted and request additional information; discuss the effectiveness of the incentives provided in promoting and encouraging technology transfer to least developed country Members in order to enable them to create a sound and viable technological base; and consider any points relating to the operation of the reporting procedure established by the Decision.
59. Some of the information by developed country Members had been received only very recently, and most of it was, so far, available only in its original language. She intended to give Members an opportunity to make further comments at the next meeting of the Council to give Members a chance to study the recently circulated information and any additional information subsequently submitted.
60. The Secretariat was planning to hold the Article 66.2 Workshop in early 2020. Considering the current situation, the dates had not yet been fixed and would be announced as soon as they are finalized. This would give LDC Members enough time to consider the information provided by developed country Members in their reports and to ensure that these reports are available in the official languages of the WTO. It would also be an opportunity to discuss the proposal of the template for reporting on commitments, presented by the LDC Group. The Workshop would comprise two days of sessions, and a reporting and review segment within the first TRIPS Council meeting of 2021. She invited developed country Members to introduce their reports.
61. The representatives of the United Kingdom; Australia; South Africa; Japan; Switzerland; Bangladesh; Chad, on behalf of the LDC Group; Canada; Indonesia; the United States of America; Australia; and the European Union took the floor.
62. The Chair proposed that Members be given an opportunity to continue considering the information provided at the next meeting.
63. The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matter at its next meeting.
IP/C/M/96, IP/C/M/96/Add.1