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

Norway

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

199.   Norway remains committed to fulfilling our obligations under Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement and thanks the Secretariat for organising the 2021 Workshop, and all participants for their contributions and presentations. 200.   Norway presented our incentives for technology transfer given through our development cooperation directorate, Norad, and our development finance institution, Norfund. We focused on incentives and cooperation in the Agriculture and Aquaculture sectors. For the details, I refer to our written report which was published in December, and our presentation at the workshop – which I believe will be made electronically available. 201.   The discussion on technology transfer is often complicated, since there is no unified definition of technology transfer. Also LDC needs and priorities vary, and reporting Members have different institutional setups that make our reporting quite varied as well. 202.   With this backdrop, the WTO Secretariat has done a great job over several years to improve the programme and content of the workshop, and thank for their analysis of both reporting Members' reports and LDC priorities for transfer of technology. This has been done in close coordination with the LDC Group and the reporting Members. 203.   The gradual, systematic improvements to the dialogue has made it richer, and contributes to increased understanding between reporting Members and LDCs. We look forward to advancing the cooperation and dialogue on transfer of technology to LDCs further in the future.

The Council took note of the statements made.

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.

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