H.E. Ambassador Dagfinn Sørli

Tanzania

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

178.   Thank you Chair for giving me the floor to intervene on behalf of the African Group. At the outset, we would like to commend the Secretariat for organizing the Workshop on the Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement which brought participants from LDCs and developed country Members to exchange views and share experience on the subject matter. Similarly, the African Group would like to commend developed country Members which have submitted their reports to the TRIPS Council demonstrating the efforts undertaken to implement Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement as obligated, for which also we would like to urge Members which have not submitted their reports yet, to do so. Also, we have noted with appreciations the efforts of all Members implementing numerous projects in LDCs and particularly in the African region geared to promote technology transfer. 179.   While those efforts are commendable, still there is a room for further improvement on both the annual reports and the actual incentive programmes which will encourage their private sector to transfer technology. It should be recalled that Article 66.2 is calling for public policies or programmes that developed country Members undertake to encourage their respective enterprises or institutions to engage in real technology transfer. On the annual reports, Members should focus on programmes geared to LDCs as beneficiaries and need to specify the targeted technologies transfer. However, regarding the 2021 reports like previous years reports, one finds difficult to pinpoint the actual targets of projects or transferred technologies. 180.   The past two years of battling with COVID-19 challenges have exposed the vulnerability of LDCs due to their weak industrial capacities constraining their ability to produce basic products especially medical related products. Therefore, deliberate and genuine efforts are still desired to support LDCs in their endeavour to this course.

56. 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