H.E. Ambassador Dagfinn Sørli and Ambassador Dr. Lansana Gberie

Togo

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

174.   I would like to congratulate the Secretariat and the TRIPS Council for having prepared the meeting so smoothly, of course, took place on a virtual platform, thanks to the Information technology, communications, we can remain in touch even from capital. Thank you very much for all the technical arrangements that have been made to enable us to take part, even though we are not in Geneva. We also congratulate you, Chair, for the way that you are steering our meetings. We also thank the team who has presented the Report for 2021, I think that shows the great efforts that have been made. 175.   Togo is extremely grateful to countries that have given their precious support to the projects mentioned in the reports: the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC); the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). I would like to take this opportunity to indicate our willingness and interest in reviewing the priority areas of interest communicated to the Secretariat since 9 October 2015. It is being over nine years now since those leads were identified and given the context in our country and our national development plans that has been drawn up and sectoral plans as well, we think it is very important to review our needs so that they reflect the current situation. Our country is trying to ensure that there are good links with between the private sector and the work of researchers so that innovations that come out of that to collaboration can be used by the private sector. We are benefiting from some support. In that regard we would like to continue with that effort. We work on the themes that have been chosen and underscored by the delegation of Chad, and we wish to support those comments and we wish to continue to work with all of our partners to better use the intellectual property system.

The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matter at its next meeting.

51. The Chair recalled that the Council had conducted the Nineteenth Annual Review under Paragraph 2 of the Decision on the Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement at its meeting in October 2021. At that meeting delegations from developed country Members had briefly presented the updated reports they had submitted under Article 66.2, and the Council had agreed that it would revert to the item at the present meeting to permit continued consideration of the submitted material. He also recalled that, in July 2020, the LDC Group had circulated a new submission entitled "Proposed New Template for Annual Reporting under Article 66.2 of the Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights" in document .
52. In order to give LDCs more time to absorb the information provided by developed country Members in their reports, and to ensure that these reports were available in the official languages of the WTO, the Secretariat had once again 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, 3 and 4 March 2022. The Chair indicated that some capital-based delegates who had participated in that Workshop were present at the meeting.
53. The Chair asked the Secretariat to report on this Workshop.
54. A representative of the Secretariat took the floor.
55. The representatives of Sierra Leone; Chad,; Bangladesh; Togo; Nepal; Tanzania; Norway; the European Union; the United Kingdom, South Africa; Japan; Switzerland; the United States; Canada; and Australia took the floor.
56. The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matter at its next meeting.

IP/C/M/104/Add.1, IP/C/M/104/Rev.1, IP/C/M104