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

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1. Meeting date

2. Chairperson

H.E. Ambassador Xolelwa Mlumbi-Peter (South Africa)

3. Intervention by

Canada

4. Agenda item

10 FOLLOW-UP TO THE EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REVIEW UNDER PARAGRAPH 2 OF THE DECISION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLE 66.2 OF THE TRIPS AGREEMENT

5. Statement/summary of statement

187.   Canada would like to thank the Secretariat for organizing the thematic discussions and panels during previous week's annual workshop on the implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement. Canada welcomed the exchange of views and experiences on the implementation of this commitment, including the opportunity to hear directly from LDCs on their tech transfer interests and priorities in meeting their respective national development objectives. 188.   In our view, this exchange is key to ensuring that LDCs have an opportunity to provide feedback on specific projects and on their priority needs, and to help provide that technology transfer incentives continue to enable LDCs to address emerging development challenges in creating a sound and viable technological base. We similarly benefit from hearing the experiences of other developed country Members, sharing and identifying best practices and commonalities, being better informed how future incentives in the area of technology transfer can respond to LDCs' priorities over time. 189.   Canada was pleased to present on key updates from its October 2020 annual report (which can be found in document IP/C/R/TTI/CAN/1), and to participate in previous week's panel discussion on the theme of technology transfer in the area of environment. In this spirit, Canada would be pleased to discuss any of the projects reported under this thematic area, and indeed any of the other thematic areas detailed in our 2020 report, which also include agriculture, health, digital economy, information and communications technologies, and entrepreneurship. 190.   We look forward to further dialogue through the annual workshop and discussions here in the TRIPS Council, and once again thank the Secretariat for convening the 2021 workshop, and all Members for their constructive engagement on this important commitment.

6. Documents referred to in intervention

7. Conclusion

The Council took note of the statements made.

8. Summary of the agenda item (if available)

42. The Chair recalled that, at the Council's meeting in October 2000, the Eighteenth Annual Review under Paragraph 2 of the Decision on the Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement had been on the agenda. At that meeting, delegations had briefly presented the updated reports submitted by developed country Members under Article 66.2. Since that meeting, the Council had received a further submission of an updated report from the delegation of New Zealand. At that meeting, the Council agreed that it would revert to the item at this meeting to permit continued consideration of the submitted material.
43. In July 2020, the LDC Group had circulated a submission entitled "Proposed New Template for Annual Reporting under Article 66.2 of the Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights".
44. In order to give LDCs more time to absorb the information provided by developed countries in their reports, and to ensure that these reports were available in the official languages of the WTO, the Secretariat had organized a Workshop on the Implementation of the Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement. Due to the sanitary situation, the Workshop had been held in virtual format on 2, 4 and 5 March 2021. Some of the capital-based delegates who participated in the Workshop would take part in the discussions under this agenda item. She invited the Secretariat to report on the Workshop.
45. A representative of the Secretariat took the floor.
46. The representatives of the United States of America; Australia, the United Kingdom; Switzerland; Canada; Japan; the European Union; Norway; China; Bangladesh, on behalf of the LDC Group; and Mozambique took the floor.
47. The Council took note of the statements made.

9. Document symbol and date of distribution

IP/C/M/98, IP/C/M/98/Add.1
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